Let's Get Married
by luvtoshi
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple solution to their immediate problems. But maybe they took more than they can chew?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

**This story is set years post war and is almost AU. **

**I don't own Naruto.**

XXXXX

_**A simple solution to their problems…**_

"Let's get married."

"…"

Okay, it was not how he had planned to say it; definitely not this rushed and abrupt, certainly nothing as he had rehearsed repeatedly in front of his mirror since a few days. But the words were out and could not be retracted now.

Uzumaki Naruto nervously shot a sideways glance at his best buddy, his long term pal, his timeless confidante, gauging her reaction in trepidation. Albeit, 'buddy' and 'pal' did not really do justice to the, in his mind, image of feminine perfection which his eyes furtively scanned; slender, well toned frame topped by the pinkest hair he had ever seen in his life, face alight by the brightest green eyes he had ever come across; allure which had never ceased to turn male heads in admiration, whether in Konoha or elsewhere, his own being on top of the list, though he made sure never to do it in a too leery way, least that she noticed it and pounded him to a paste.

Yes, not to forget her scary temper; or the monstrous strength that had only increased with time. And the name that she had acquired for herself during the past years, having earned respect and admiration nationwide, adding to her appeal...

Yes, _her_… his best friend, and the one his heart had set on since as long as he could remember.

The two were tiredly sprawled on the lush green grassy ground under the shade of a wide oak tree, exhausted and battered from their two hours training. It was barely 8:00 in the morning and the summer sun was already blazing hot in the spotless blue sky; but the trickle of sweat which Naruto felt running down his back had nothing to do with the heat.

Said pal turned her head almost idly to eye him, calm and cool – definitely not the reaction that Naruto had been apprehending. He had been more imagining something in the line of a yell of "Have you gone out of your mind or what?"

Haruno Sakura contemplated the blond silently, barely fazed, used as she was to the never-ending, outrageous suggestions of her lifelong dunce of a friend. She had since long ceased to be dumbfounded by his ever extravagant 'proposals'; it was simply a waste of her energy. It was a while since the pink haired head medic-nin had come to the solemn conclusion that Uzumaki Naruto would get wrinkled, toothless, hairless and knobbly with old age and still be the most unpredictable, baka ninja of Konoha and would die being the number one prankster, ever. Being his best friend, she had heard and seen it all from the front seat row. Oh yes, she had.

From his: '_Sakura-Chan, let's play a prank Tsunade Baa-Chan today'_ – and the utterly pissed former Godaime had found all her stack of sake bottles to be filled with sugared water, resulting in the famous bellow that had resonated throughout Konoha and a chase which had ended some impressive craters; to his '_Sakura-Chan, let's have another go in unveiling Kakashi sensei's mask'_ – and the poor old man (well, old by shinobi standards) had the shock of his life when the two very adult and insanely strong former students of his had spent the day trying to get that mask down. Kakashi has laid down on his bed that night feeling more bone weary than he had been during the fourth war, though his face's dignity had been spared as at the last moment, the two having had mercy on him and refrained from coercing him to remove the mask.

And there was the day when the blond had claimed that Konoha was too quiet and boring and had dragged her to the Hokage monument to aid him in painting the six Hokage faces with huge moustaches and beards, to the delight of the most cheerful inhabitants of Konoha and outrage of the stuck-up bunch, and getting some poor Genins to clean the mess _days_ later…

Oh, these were only _some_ of his outrageous suggestions of adventure 'to cheer the day', as he called them.

What irked Sakura in all this was that she found herself participating more than often in these pranks. So many times Sakura had somewhat, almost despite herself and not really knowing how, found herself following the Uzumaki in one of his prankster adventure, exhaltingly putting the 'what ifs' aside and leaving it on him to deal with the consequences later, knowing that he would always found a way out. And he always did.

But, she had yet to hear THIS one though.

Marriage proposal? Friends do not propose marriages to friends.

And they were friends, best friends, _only._

He had never made any suggestion that would threaten their solidly bonded friendship. Heck, he had even stopped pestering her for dates since a decade now - though they had lunches and dinners more than often per week, but it was never under the banner of 'date' or anything more than friendship.

A frown marred her brow as her mind slowly assimilated his 'proposal'. She pursed her lips. If it was a joke, she failed the hilarity of it. The next instant, her face began to darken. _When would he put a filter from his brain to his mouth and limit what he blurts out, the baka?_

Naruto immediately noticed _the_ signs and realized that he was rapidly losing his ground – the dark face would be rapidly followed by a vein ticking out on her temple, and that temper of hers would explode, and she would explode _him_… It was how she usually worked, especially when dealing with him when he riled her: react first, think later. Admittedly, it took much more now to get her to a boiling point than what it used to take years earlier, and it only happened when he was in a particular mood of pushing her buttons just to get a reaction out of her.

For now, though, he needed to be able to lay out all his reasons first while he was still in a state to do it, so that she would have all the facts in hands when she would eventually give the proposal a serious consideration later, as he definitely knew she would.

He quickly scrambled into a sitting position. "Hear me out at least before you punch me out into the walls of Konoha," he pleaded hastily.

Sakura maintained her dark stare on him. "You have exactly one minute to explain yourself," she growled in a tone which certainly did not bode anything good for him and it was his cue to set off; he needed to be quick.

"I'm in a fix and I need help," he started hurriedly. "Some members of the council have been really, really nagging me lately. It had started since months now, but this past week had been worse; they are getting really persistent and on my nerves."

Impatient green eyes urged him to come to the point and he took a breath.

"They are demanding that that I get married."

One pink eyebrow rose incredulously at the words. "Married?" she repeated. She slowly got to a sitting position, her hands supporting her weight.

Naruto nodded. He had her full, serious attention now. "According to them, as the leader of the village, I'm _obligated_ to set the good example and get married," he grumbled unhappily. "They feel it's not a good image that I'm projecting as Hokage to be still unmarried at this age."

She opened her mouth, but foreseeing what she was about to say, he hurried on.

"Tsunade Baa-Chan was over that age when she became Hokage, so it was not a problem, whereas they insist that I'm at the age to settle down and not to still be 'frolicking about'," he quoted the exact words that had been used.

"One of them even implied that I may have other sexual orientations and that's why I'm still unmarried," he spluttered, still outraged at the memory. "He claimed that my obsession to get Sasuke back was quite weird." He had wanted to throttle that old sly geezer. "And for them being of different orientation is, of course, even more out of question for a Hokage."

Sakura managed to hold a straight face even as her mind was filled with images of Naruto being with another man in _that_ way. She quickly dragged her scandalised yet reluctantly fascinated mind back to his words, as he continued.

"I'm at the end of my patience having to endure this pressure from them…I'm simply fed up with their constant pestering and finding excuses to find faults in me being the Hokage," he sighed, raking a hand through his hair.

The blue cerulean eyes had darkened with frustration. Despite being a hero and loved by the village, there had still been a small group of the council, very small, thankfully, but still there, who had opposed his ascension to the Hokage, and till this day, they put all their effort to try to get him down. He usually managed to look over their attempts of low blows, but he was finding himself running out of excuses and his patience was running thin at their increasing demands about his single marital status.

He looked at her dejectedly. "I really don't have the energy or time," _'or the inclination'_ he thought to himself, "to go wife searching and selecting. At the same time I want to get rid of the flow of daughters, in which I have absolutely no interest at all, that some parents are throwing at me since my ascension to the Hokage title."

"Shouldn't that be the solution to your problem?" Sakura interrupted. "Why don't you simply choose someone from among them?" And what was that strange pang?

"Sakura-Chan! I'm not interested in getting married, least an arranged marriage in nobility!"

Her eyebrows shot up at that. Wasn't that the whole issue, his getting married?

"I was thinking about doing a _blank_ marriage," he said.

At the dawning comprehension on her face, he continued.

"I thought _we_ could do a blank marriage," he pointed to her and him. "It would only be platonic, like being flatmates," he hastily specified. "Something in the duration of two years will suffice, it will allow me to be able to shut those difficult council's geezers' mouth, even if momentarily and have some peace. But if ever you want to end it before the two years, for whatever reason, we will cease the arrangement immediately, no questions or bad feelings about it, I promise."

She stared incredulously at him. "And you think the council will look kindly upon a separation when that time comes?"

"They are demanding marriage; they did not specify that it need to be a lifelong one. Couples, even the best ones sometimes, get separated. And anyway, I'll tackle that issue when that time comes; at least I'll have a breather for the time being. I desperately want them off my back, even for a short while. And who knows, maybe Konohamaru will manage to kick my ass and gain the Hokage title by then, so my impending separation will not matter to the council anyway."

She was silent, too taken aback to say anything, not even smiling at the Konohamaru comment since they both knew it would take much, much more than what Konohamaru had right then to defeat Naruto.

"I thought since you don't have anybody..." he ventured nervously.

She shot him an indignant glare at that.

"At least, not anybody that I know about, right _now_," he hastily rectified. Nevertheless, being her best friend, he was well aware of all the details of her social life and knew that she did not have anyone in _that_ way. He had always made it a point to look after her and he knew everybody she frequented…Not that he would have come in her way had she been interested in anybody – her happiness was primordial to him – but apart from the one, very brief story with Hisagi, a Waves Country medic-nin who came to Konoha for a one-week exchange the previous year, she has never gone out with anybody in a romantic capacity.

Looking at her pleadingly, he murmured.

"I thought of you because we are best friends and have been team-mates for so long; we are familiar and used to each others' ways, it will be easier to cohabit and will avoid awkwardness."

Sakura frowned, her thoughts whirling at what he was suggesting. Looking at those pleading blue eyes, she decided to humor him for a brief second. "And why did you think for one moment that I'll agree to this…arrangement…?"

He straightened his back immediately and looked at her earnestly. _There was hope,_ he thought, and with a deep breath, pulled forth all his best negotiating skills.

"Well, firstly, I _really_ need help here. Like in really, _really_. And you are my best friend, and best friends help each other."

She grunted. Yes, indeed, she would do anything to help him, as he would do too.

"It would also solve your huge problem of residence right now. You won't need to look for another apartment, and think about the saving you would be able to make to eventually _buy_ a place of your own," he went on.

Sakura frowned thoughtfully. Yes, her residence problem was a major issue for her right now. Her old, sweet landlady had recently passed away and the apartment building has been passed on to her horrible nephew. Said man had immediately decided to double the rent rate of the apartments of the building. Sakura, along with the other residents, had tried to negotiate a compromise, but to no avail. Even Naruto, as the Hokage, had not been able to do anything about it since legally the man had the right to change the contract, as the ownership had changed, as was the law of Konoha.

Sakura simply could not afford the new exorbitant rent. She had a comfortable salary as head medic-nin, but she did not want to throw more than half of it away in a ridiculously expensive apartment. So, she was currently faced with the immense task of having to look for another place to move into as fast as possible.

"And with Akemi-san, you will be relieved of tiring housework and think about the warm, homemade, delicious meals that will always await you at the end of a long, tiring day," he added.

Trust Naruto to think in terms of his stomach, Sakura could help rolling her eyes. Akemi was Naruto's middle aged, wonderful housekeeper, whom Sakura herself had recruited for him, and she had to admit that the lady could cook.

Blue eyes danced mischievously as the blond continued, "And living together, you will have easier access to nag me to you heart's content." He tried to keep a straight face as he said that.

"Hey, I don't nag you that much!" she immediately exclaimed, indignant.

He eyed her with the look that said 'Really? Who are you kidding?'

She nagged him for EVERYTHING. About his eating – she was always checking with his housekeeper that he had healthy meals with lot veggies; about his health - God forbid if he had dared acquire a wound or take un-necessary risks; about his working hours - she would scold him if he stayed too late at the office; about him drinking alcohol – he very rarely did, not liking the thing, but the couple of times she had caught him faintly inebriated she had glowered at him and lecture him about liver damage and what not; about his finances – she would always caution him about being careful…The list goes on.

There had even been this one time when she had made a comment about his undergarments! He had been in her office for a vaccine, and when he had lowered the waist of his pants to bare his hip - nothing indecently exposed – she had looked at the partly exposed waistband of his boxers and had remarked something in the line of, "I do hope you wear fresh, clean boxers everyday!"

He had turned to look at her incredulously. Surely she had not..? Oh but she had.

It seemed as if she had realized the ludricity of her comment as well and had turned pink.

"I'll pretend that you have not said that," he had simply replied dryly and she had readily agreed.

Sometimes, Naruto felt that his mom had come from the heavens to have a chat with Sakura, discussing the things that he needed to be nagged about, since Sakura nagged him for almost the exact things his mother had lectured him about while he had met her briefly in the fox realm.

_Well, someone has to look after him_, Sakura thought defensively. He worked and cared so dedicatedly for their village, even at the detriment of his own personal life, the least she could do was ensure that _he_ was properly cared for in turn. _And surely I don't nag THAT much,_ she protested to herself, huffing.

"And," he continued, coming back to his persuasion task, knowing that the next one would rile her even more, "it's not as if we are getting any younger. Won't you feel better about shutting up those relatives of yours, even if for a short time?"

Yes, Sakura's relatives, especially on her paternal side, did have the tendency to point out her still unmarried status each they met. Luckily for her they rarely came to visit, but when they did, it was a nasty time for Sakura.

Then, belatedly realizing his jab about her age, Sakura bristled threateningly, just as Naruto had known she would. "Hey, we're only 25 years old!"

"25 years is _old_ for a shinobi," he pointed out. "See how everybody in our group had already settled down?"

It was true. Ino was happily married to Shikamaru and unknown to anybody yet, was two month pregnant, as Sakura had found out from her tests results the previous day, Chouji was married to a girl form his clan and already had a 1 year old son, Ten-Ten was married to Neiji, Hinata was married to another Hyuuga and had a 2 years old daughter, Kiba got recently engaged to a girl form his clan, Lee had a long term girlfriend Ami, a lovely Jounin, Shino was married to a member of his own clan. Heck, even Sai had a fast girlfriend.

As for Sasuke, the guy already had two little Uchihas running about. Yes, their former team-mate had been that busy to build up his clan, but it was no surprise really as the guy had openly announced, at the age of 12, to have the burning ambition to rebuild his clan.

Naruto and Sakura had succeeded, together, against all odds, to bring their wayward team-mate home after the war. But it had not been the happily reunited team 7, as they had always dreamed; Sasuke had changed too much beyond recognition for that.

The only thing that had prevented a punishment of execution for his past deeds had been his major role in bringing down Madara and thus ending the war. Added to that, the veto of the Daimyo of Fire country, who did not want to see such a prestigious and powerful clan as the Uchiha disappear, had brought Sasuke punishment down to home-imprisonment and stripping him off his powers for 7 years. He had stonily accepted his sentence.

He had continued to coldly refuse his team-mates back in his life, remaining frigidly aloof and withdrawn despite Naruto's and Sakura's effort as they visited him at the Uchiha compound during his imprisonment. After a while, the two had reduced their visits, leaving the Uchiha him to his own things. Now, it was only Naruto who still went to visit him, Sakura had since long ceased to, not knowing what to say in his presence anymore.

But the two took happiness in the fact that at least Sasuke was back home and not driving further into a dark, hatred filled, lonely world. Since Sasuke had been allowed to marry during his home-imprisonment, he had taken a noble as wife, and his two sons had been born shortly after, within two-year intervals.

It has been one year since the Uchiha had been given his powers back though the close monitoring of his movements still stayed. Naruto had proposed him to get back in Konoha ranks, but Sasuke had refused to resume his life as a shinobi. The Uchiha fortune released to him had ensured that he was well off financially and he had preferred to remain secluded, tending to his properties.

So, to sum it up, Naruto and Sakura were the only two to still be single out of their group of friends.

For Naruto, the reason was simple, really. For him, no other girl had ever counted; it had always been Sakura and it would always be her, and if could not be her, it would be no one else, he had decided long ago.

He was not the first one to choose to be single - his two senseis, Jiraiya and Kakashi being some prime examples - and he would not be the last one to prefer a single life to a compromised life with someone other than the one of his heart. He refused to live a lie, to force himself to be with someone for whom he did hold such feelings for, as he had gently told Hinata years ago, after having given a pitifully short, failed attempt at a relationship with the Hyuuga heiress. It would have been unfair to her and he would not be able to live with himself.

He had never approached Sakura with his feelings because somehow, that opportunity seemed to have been missed as more years had passed. They had settled so deeply and comfortably in their close friendship that it had gotten hard to take the slightest risk to breach that bond; he had been terrified to do anything to put that bond in jeopardy.

What they had already was so strong, what they share transcends anything, they were as close as two human beings could be, excluding being lovers. He strived to be happy with what he had, preciously cherishing her affection and bond above.

But now, with this issue about the council rising, things _could_ take a different turn. It was a far fetched thought and he did not want to dwell into it but still…one could hope.

Coming out of his musings, he met affronted green eyes glaring at him.

Sakura was visibly annoyed. Whatever their friends' status, poking her about her age had been a bad thing to do, and her eyes narrowed threateningly at the blond Hokage.

"So, this how you've come to this utterly, most ridiculous solution I've heard ever heard in my life," she growled, crackling her fists. "Your one minute is _long_ over," she warned.

"Sakura-Chan!" Naruto wailed, quickly scrambling to his feet and running away for life, knowing that nothing more could be said now.

The citizens of Konoha did not react when they heard the yell of their young Rokudaime. There could be only one person who could make him yell for dear life like that– well, two, if they counted the former Godaime, but the retired woman rarely did that these days. So, that would be their head medic-nin, they all thought. The villagers just shook their heads knowingly as the growl of their monstrously-powered head medic-nin followed soon after. Being used to it, they happily continued with their occupations of the day, safe in the knowledge that they were dearly cherished and protected by their mighty Hokage as the front line defense, and if ever the enemy had, by fluke, managed to get past that impeccable defense, they had the best medic of the whole five nations to repair them back to health.

XXXXX

Just as Naruto had known she would, Sakura gave the strange proposal a thorough thought later that night, alone at home after her shift at the hospital. It was rare that Naruto asked her for serious help and she gave the request its due consideration, because she would do anything to help her best friend.

One thing he had been right, it was not as if she was taken that it would prevent her from accepting this request, nor did see anything like that to happen in the near future.

She had spent so many years chasing after her one-sided love for Sasuke, a couple of years further to come to terms with the fact that her feelings were and had always been futile and would never be returned, and some more years to get used to this reality and get herself completely purged of any residual feelings she had for the Uchiha, that by the time she was done with it all she had lost her romantic outlook of life and had been too wary of looking for a relationship anymore.

Not forgetting that there had always been this stormy and unexplained thing she had for Naruto all that time; feelings which had remained unsolved, since they had, on an _unspoken_, common decision, settled into a close friendship instead. It was a friendship that she valued above anything and friendship which neither of them had ever tried to change, keeping it safe and cherished.

The only man she had been acquainted with in a little more than friendly capacity had been Hisagi, and it was not as if there had been any major involvement or feelings shared. Knowing that it would be only for a few days, both of them had decided to keep the story light and pleasant.

Not that she was a moping about her lack of love life; she was very content with what she had. Her career was more than thrilling and she had a swarm of great friends, with Naruto on the top of her list, for her to be happy.

So, she _was_ free of any present or forthcoming relationship restriction to consider Naruto's request. But though Naruto had made it sound so simple - typical of him, he always made things sound much easier, as impossible seemed to be absent in his vocabulary - Sakura, being the meticulous and brainy one, could see many loopholes in his plans. The major one was her own dormant, complicated feelings which she had buried deep within her.

It was definitely not a decision to take lightly, and Sakura remained awake until the wee morning hours, turning the prospect all around in her mind.

XXXXX

A couple of days later, Sakura found herself giving the proposal another serious thought as she faced her new landlord on the threshold of her apartment's door. She was trying desperately to hold on to her calm, her hands curled into a tight fist, curbing the urge to punch the middle aged man as the sleazy being ran his eyes over her form as soon as she opened her door. It was the third time he had come to her apartment for the past two weeks and his revolting attitude seemed to increase each time, seeing as he did not even attempt to hide the lecherous sweep of his eyes over her person.

_Can't hit him, can't hit him_, she chanted like the mantra in her head, her jaw clenched. _Think about the consequences, the dark, cold prison,_ she insisted to herself, for she would be definitely imprisoned if she hit a civilian. He would simply die, or at worst suffer permanent damage if she landed a single punch on him.

"So, Sakura-san..." The way he drawled her name made her shudder in fury. "Have you come to a decision?" he asked in his nasal voice which grated on her nerves, the small beady eyes running over her again.

Her fists clenched tighter. "Legally, I have until the end of the month to give you my decision," she snapped, "so I still have four weeks left."

"I just came to remind you about it_" he started, but Sakura had had enough.

"I'll see you at the end of the month," she grated and slammed the door on his face.

She felt like screaming as she leaned against the door, cursing the predicament she was in for the umpteenth time. Looking around at the beloved, small but cozy living room which opened to the kitchen and dining room, she again despaired that she had to leave the place which she had called home for the past seven years since she had left her parents' house.

Good apartments were very rare to find these days. More and more shinobis were getting their own place at earlier age, so the demand for housing in Konoha had peaked during the past years, resulting in prices getting soaring high. She, along with the help of Ino, had been scrounging the town in the look of a decent place. The ones she could afford were scrawny, and the one she liked was not within the budget she had allocated for lodging, unless she decided to squeeze in her other expenses. She had considered sharing with a flatmate but all her friends were settled, most with families of their own, and the idea of sharing with a total stranger did not appeal to her.

The image of the one storeyed, bamboo shingles roofed house, surrounded by a small, lush green garden that was the Hokage residence was very, very appealing right then; house which she herself had a huge hand, (if not total hand) in decorating when the Rokudaime was given his Namikaze heritage at the age of 18.

But still, lodging should not play too importantly on her decision; it was their friendship which could be in jeopardy if all this turned sour, and she did not want to risk that for anything.

XXXXX

Later in the week, Sakura drearily slumped her form into her parents couch after the delicious and elaborate lunch cooked by her mother. She longed to escape to her apartment, but she could not, her mother's pleading glance forced her to curb that urge. It was her father's birthday and she _had_ told her parents, since a week now, that it was her day off, so she could not find a valid excuse of not staying over for longer. She rarely had time to visit as it is, busy as she was as medic-nin, so the rare times she could manage it and for such special occasions she always ensured that she stay over as long as possible.

She usually loved to visit her parents and always enjoyed the pampering and fabulous cooking of her mother, but her averse to be present on this specific day stemmed from the presence of her out of town paternal relatives: her grandmother and her two aunts. The one who were always riling her about her still single status. They were from a civilian town, a day travel away from Konoha and had come for the birthday.

So, currently, Sakura felt like a grumpy, sulking kid, forced to behave properly around adults, dreading when they would start on her case. And she was not disappointed, for as soon as all the family gathered in the leaving room and were seated, it started.

"So, still no husband, Sakura?" roared her old grandma, sitting opposite to her. The old lady may look fragile at 70 years old, but it was just a false image as she was a real paragon, with a forceful personality and unbearably, stubbornly pushy when she wanted.

Being that they met very rarely, Sakura was not particularly close to her or her aunts and the fact that they did not understand her choice for being a shinobi did not help at all.

"Who would want such a …" Aunt Mai paused voluntarily, running a critical eye over Sakura, "muscular wife anyway," sighed the buxom woman dramatically, eyes lingering pointedly at the large forehead before falling down to the modest bust and the slim hips of her niece. "Men like their women to be more feminine and less domineering, Sakura."

Sakura scowled, retaining a snarky reply and held to her temper, a vein ticking at her temple. Yes, her forehead had not magically shrunk in size, neither had her bust miraculously expanded since her late teens, and her slim frame was not hotly voluptuous, her voice and temper when raised was anything but dulcet; but she had come to accept and like her looks as they were and her temperament could not be helped, and her relatives' words was not about to change that.

She took a deep breathe to calm herself. Her grandmother and aunts were not bad people, really, they were just very set in their own ways about the role of women. Being civilians, the idea of a woman being a Kunoichi and not married at the age of 16 and produce kids at 17, like her cousins had, was alien and incomprehensible to them, and in their world, women were sweet and subservient and agree with everything their husbands say.

Sakura had great difficulty in imagining her dragonic grandmother being sweet or obedient, though. She painfully swallowed her ire and was still struggling to get a _polite_ response out, when her father chuckled loudly.

"Well, a very strong and deserving man would like her for what she is," he said affectionately, winking at his daughter. Sakura smiled a thanks to him. He had always advised her to take the family comments with a grain of salt, but Sakura still always got riled up by them. "Nothing less for my princess," he added proudly.

Her mother nodded in agreement. "Sakura is put on the same league as the esteemed Godaime in terms of medic-nin, she has already earned the respect of the whole village, even further nations" she said proudly.

Sakura did not miss the wistful glint that entered her mother's eyes and almost rolled her eyes. The older Haruno might be taking her side in front of their relatives, but whenever Sakura was home, she would always nudge her about any prospective son-in-law.

Her grandma huffed. "Well, she may be successful, but still without a man to return home to. Now look at _"

Sakura groaned and resolutely closed her mind to the rest of the conversation, having enough for the day. It was always the same story.

Why did it feel like someone from above was having a good laugh by throwing out the reasons that Naruto had enumerated to support his 'proposal'? She thought crossly.

XXXXX

Sakura reached her decision the very next day. In all logics and rationality, there were hundreds of reasons that this was the most foolish, reckless thing to do, but the fact that Naruto _needed_ her help trumped all other reasons… the rest was all side benefits, which really were a solution to her immediate problems, as he had said. So, Sakura found herself finally wanting to take the plunge and accept his unusual proposal.

She found Naruto chatting with two Jounins of the administrative staff at the Hokage tower's lobby when she went to look for him during her lunch time.

She observed him for a moment, taking in his tall frame – he topped her by half a foot now – the face more angular now, the blond hair still as shaggy and unruly as ever, held by the Hitai-ate, the maroon Hokage robe suggesting the lean but powerful physique, his face alight as he laughed loudly at what one of the Jounins said.

She suddenly felt nervous about what they were about to do, her hands clammy as she shakily tucked away a stray lock of hair which had escaped her mid-back length braid. Drawing a deep breath, she squared her shoulder determinedly. She had made a decision, and would stick to it.

Naruto finally noticed her standing at the entrance. With a hurried apology, he took leave of the two Jounins and made his way in her direction. His eyes were hesitant as he walked towards her; they had not met since his 'proposal', so he was wary of her reaction, but his smile was the usual bright as he greeted her.

"Sakura-Chan!"

Sakura nodded back, remaining standing where she was and waited for him to reach her side, within discreet-talking distance.

"Are we having lunch together?" he asked, trying to recall whether they were to meet on that day. Most of the time, he was the one to go to get her from the hospital when they met for lunch, but they had not made any plans for that day as far as he knew.

"About that proposal of yours…" Sakura started in a low voice, deciding to go straight to the subject and he immediately snapped to attention, looking at her carefully.

"It will be like flatmates _only_, correct?" she asked almost hesitantly.

Naruto felt a jolt. Was she agreeing? "You trust me?" he asked simply.

Her eyes snapped at him. He did not even _need_ to ask that question. She trusted him blindly. With her life. "Do you even need to ask that?" she replied.

"Then I give you my word that I would never cross any boundaries."

She stared at him, his serious tone imparting his sincerity to that commitment, and she slowly nodded.

"Well, unless YOU want me to," he then added, a sly, teasing grin on his face, winking roguishly at her.

She growled and rolled her eyes. Trust him to break a serious moment. "Platonic flatmates," she said firmly, her eyes twitching and he immediately chuckled nervously.

"Just teasing, Sakura-Chan, you know that."

"I'm being thrown out of my apartment in barely three weeks," she informed him. "I'll go to my parents in the meantime_"

"We'll do a quick wedding," Naruto threw in smoothly. "Shall we go for lunch to discuss about all this?" he proposed, as they were still standing on the lobby of the Hokage tower, and she acquiesced.

So, once again Sakura find herself following her idiot of a friend in a reckless adventure, longer term this time, and once again, exhaltingly putting the what ifs aside and letting it on him to deal with the consequences when they come.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N

**- I thank everyone, from the deepest of my heart, for their support of this story. Thank you…**

**- I'll simply say I hope you enjoy this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it; the only thing, don't set your expectations too high, lol. It's a short (and hopefully sweet) story, already completed, I'm just taking the time to edit before posting each chapter (and for me this takes longer than actually writing the story!)**

**XXXXX  
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_**It would be small, inconspicuous…**_

Tsunade was happy beyond words. "Of course I'll do it. It'll be our pleasure." She was purposely gruff, not wanting to show her immense emotions to the young Rokudaime.

Shizune nodded rigorously in agreement, smiling widely. Both women had been overjoyed when learning about Naruto and Sakura finally getting together, and now to be given the responsibility of organizing the wedding on the groom's side was an honor that touched them both deeply.

It was one week since Sakura had accepted Naruto's 'proposal'. They had made their 'engagement' publicly known the next day, and since then, things had seemed to go berserk. The young Hokage could not help feeling overwhelmed with the whole thing. It seemed that the minute they had announced the news to the first person, Ino in this case, was the minute that the news had passed all over the Konoha grapevines, spreading like wildfire, and now the whole village was excitedly abuzz with the hot news of the Hokage being engaged with the head medic-nin.

On a common accord, Naruto and Sakura had decided not to let _anyone_ know about the true purpose of the marriage yet. If there was to be any major question from close friends, they would reconsider who to tell, deciding to play it by the ear and see how things went. But as at now, everyone had accepted their engagement and forthcoming, hurried wedding without even battling an eyelash, much to the surprise of the two. Their careful elaborated explanation of why the sudden rush to get married had not even been used, the common reaction being: "It was high time, you two!"

Same as for their friends, the engagement had been readily accepted by the populace, and since the announcement, it seemed every single person the Rokudaime had come across, from the youngest to the oldest, had been keen to offer the much abashed man their best wishes.

The wedding date had been set in one month, on the first week of Fall. Four weeks did not leave too much time for a wedding preparation, but as theirs was going to be a simple, small wedding, the young man knew he could count on the former Hokage, with Shizune in the deal, to arrange for everything needed on time.

Originally, he and Sakura had decided on a registration wedding, with Tsunade presiding the ceremony and some witnesses in attendance. It had seemed the best option, seeing the circumstance of this marriage – to have something with as little frills as possible. But that had been overlooking Sakura's parents' reaction to such idea. They had been scandalized that their only daughter would even consider 'robbing them of the happiness to do a proper, traditional wedding', as has been their words.

"And you are the Hokage," Sakura's mother had protested, looking at Naruto almost reproachfully, "You surely cannot forgo a proper wedding!"

Having been deeply relieved that the first obstacle, that of having her parents' approval, had been easily overcome – they had accepted the engagement and forthcoming marriage with sincere, obvious joy – Naruto had not want to rock the boat now by displeasing them about the ceremony. He had looked helplessly at Sakura, letting her take the decision. After some further pushing and guilt trips from her mother, Sakura had finally given in to her demand of a traditional wedding, with a firm compromise that it would be a small, inconspicuous ceremony.

The young Rokudaime had in fact secretly quite liked the turn of events, before realizing that he had absolutely no idea how to organize a wedding.

So, here he was, turning to the only mother figure in his life to request for her help. He sat crossed legged on the porch of Tsunade's quaint house, with the two women sitting opposite him.

"You can leave everything to us," Tsunade said, assuring.

Naruto grinned in heartfelt relief. "Thank you, Obaa-Chan, Shizune-san! Please feel free to arrange for whatever will be needed," he requested both women. "You can liaise with Sakura's mother in case you need to have something done with them."

The former Godaime nodded. "Don't worry, we'll see to every detail." It was the first wedding she would be preparing at such a personal level, and it touched her to the core that he had chosen her for the task.

"I want something _simple_," Naruto said.

"Hmm," she replied absentmindedly, her mind already sprinting ahead in all that needed to be done. They did not have much time and there was a _lot_ to do.

"Not too big, and just a short list of invitee," he continued.

The blond woman stared at him, her mental planning scheme pausing momentarily. "Just a short list," she repeated, deadpan.

"Yeah, just my _friends_, you know."

A short silence lapsed. "Just your friends," Tsunade said drily, raising her eyebrows. She looked at Shizune; both women shared an incredulous and exasperated look. In Uzumaki Naruto's world, 'just friends' had another meaning and another dimension, _sizewise_.

Naruto did not notice her mocking tone, or the sceptic look that the two women shared. "Let me know how much money you will need," he said.

"I'll give you the bill as we progress," Tsunade replied. She herself had put aside a small saving, always planning to gift it to him on such a day. It seemed it would be handy now, to cover the _extras_.

"Just some details we would need, Naruto-sama. Who do you intend to use as groomsman?" Shizune asked. "And who would stand as your parents for the ceremonial rituals?"

The choice of parents was easy, but it was more complicated for the groomsman. Naruto thought for a moment and groaned. "Why do I need to _choose_ a groomsman?" he grumbled, confused as to whom he would ask from his group of friends.

Tsunade smirked. "You do know that you are allowed more than one groomsman?"

Naruto's face brightened at that.

XXXXX

"Ino, calm down!" Sakura looked her three and half month pregnant friend in consternation.

It was two weeks until the wedding, and Ino had marched in Sakura's office at the hospital, breathing fire.

"Forehead, I don't get you. We NEED to get your dress by now!" the former Yamanaka, current Nara young woman almost screeched.

"I've already selected something; it's just a question of going to buy it now!" Sakura protested. Ino, Ten-Ten and Hinata had accompanied her for a preliminary shopping spree a week ago, and Sakura had set her eye on a simple yet elegant white kimono; traditional white at the insistence of the girls. The salesperson had assured them that if there were any alterations to be made, he would be able to do it in one day itself; so she failed to see why Ino was so distraught. She was so overloaded with work at the hospital for the moment that she simply could not spare the necessary time to go for the purchase.

"That's it. You've _liked_ one; you haven't bought it yet, nor ask the shop to keep it for you!"

Ino still thought that the kimono which Sakura had selected was too simple, but Sakura had refused to budge. But that was the least of the issue: the way the pink-haired was delaying who knew whether she would still have a wedding dress! "There's only two weeks left! And what if it's already sold out?" The blond was getting more agitated.

"I'm sure it has not been sold out. And please don't get in such a state, it's not good for you!" Sakura chided.

In times like this, Sakura wondered about the wisdom of letting her pregnant-induced emotional friend taking the harrying task of being her maid of honor. But it's not as if she had any choice anyway, Sakura thought ruefully. In fact, she had not even thought about having bridesmaids originally, being that the wedding was supposed to be a small, quiet one. But Ino had immediately popped the question of bridesmaids upon learning the forthcoming ceremony, putting the soon to-be-married girl in a corner. There had been no way to tell the young Nara woman that she had not been not considering having bridesmaid, and when Sakura had cautiously enquired whether with her pregnant state, wouldn't it be better for Ino not to be bothered by such a hassle, the blond girl had threatened Sakura not to even think about not choosing her. From there on, Ino had sort of proclaimed herself as the maid of honor, and had taken to the role to the hilt.

Sakura still felt astonished at how uncannily easily their coming union had been accepted by all their friends. Even Ino had not suspected anything amiss, which was unbelievable, seeing how the girl always seemed to detect the tiniest hidden secret.

"Free yourself after lunch," the pregnant young woman ordered impetuously. "We are going to get that dress today itself."

"I can't, my grandmother has come to visit and Naruto is to come for lunch," Sakura almost wailed gloomily.

Just as Sakura had been about to leave her parents house for work that morning, a horse carriage has stopped in front of the porch, from which her grandmother, not forgetting the loads of huge trunks, had alighted, much to Sakura's dismay. The old lady had announced that she had come for the wedding, to Sakura's growing horror, being that the wedding was two whole weeks away! And she had immediately demanded to meet the future groom, accepting no excuses; least that she would march to the Hokage tower herself to invite him in person.

Sakura had precipitately deemed it mush safer that she get Naruto in for the lunch.

The pink haired head medic-nin was definitely not looking forward to the coming two weeks. Being that she was staying at her parents at the moment, there was no way to avoid her grandmother, unless she decided to sleep at the hospital for all the nights to come.

"I'll come to get you at mid afternoon, then," Ino said firmly. "I doubt that you granny would retain you for the whole afternoon!" The shop was in the civilian area, closer to her parents' house, so it made sense that they met at Sakura's parents' house.

"No excuses!" she rapped as Sakura opened her mouth. "I can't believe how unconcerned you are! It was the same thing about the flowers, the decorations, and the cake!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at this. Her mother and Ino had teamed up and almost coerced her into leaving all the wedding arrangements up to them. Not that Sakura was complaining; work at the hospital was being incredibly hectic what with the new batch of medics to be trained, she could barely spare the needed time for the preparation of the short noticed wedding. So, she had gladly handed over the arrangement to two pestering, almost begging, over zealous women.

Both had been so very obviously gleeful about her giving up the rein that Sakura had immediately put some strong warning in place: simple, she had demanded, following her _short_ list of invitees and family additions that her mother needed to make. She wanted it to be a small, intimate wedding, with an equally small reception afterwards, seeing the circumstances,

"Ino, that's why I feel lucky have you, the best organiser of Konoha, as my maid of honor," Sakura teased. Ino would have fussed whatever the situation. "But please, stop stressing yourself so much over this," she reiterated, getting serious, "otherwise Shika will kill me."

Ino only huffed and stared at her friend with unhidden exasperation. She was very happy that the pink-haired and Naruto had finally crossed the step, but what puzzled Ino was that Sakura still looked the same as ever and nothing like a bride who would get married in a mere two weeks. Even her behavior with Naruto was unchanged.

Then Ino shook her head and smiled ruefully; nothing surprising in that since Sakura had always acted like the possessive, nagging wife with Naruto, so now getting to be the _official_ nagging wife did not make any difference.

XXXXX

Some hours later, Sakura was prepping Naruto about the forthcoming meeting with her grandmother.

"Don't worry, Sakura-Chan! Everything will be all right." He noted her tensed shoulders as the made their way to her parents' house. "I'll put on my best behaviour!" he teased. "Besides, she cannot be as bad as you are making her sound!"

She shook her head, lips curved downwards. "My grandmother would make Ibiki-san look like a weakling in the advanced interrogation and information collecting area," she said gloomily. "She will be sure to bully you to a maximum, grilling and prying at everything possible. Just be prepared."

"Hey," Naruto encircled her drooping shoulders with his arm with a cheerful smile. "I'll be fine! Really."

Barely a while later, Sakura watched, jaw almost falling off, as Naruto worked his usual, uncanny magic on her tyrannical, prickly grandmother while they all sat for lunch.

"Now I can see from where Sakura-Chan gets her temper," Naruto chuckled in delight as he teased the 70 year old lady.

Looking across the table at the animatedly chatting pair, the pink haired sardonically wondered why had she, even for a second, worried about Naruto meeting the Haruno old matriarch; the two had gotten along instantaneously and was now interacting as if they've known each other for years, instead of barely an hour. Her usually grouchy, domineering grandmother was all smiles and heartiness. Sakura huffed inwardly. She should have known; who could resist the sunny Uzumaki Naruto, anyway.

Her mother, on her side, fussed ceaselessly over Naruto, while her father looked on, an indulgent smile on his face, inputting some words in the conversation from time to time. Years ago, they had been a bit wary when Sakura had been placed in the Jinchuriki team, but with time, they had come to appreciate their daughter's dedicated team-mate. They had always been aware of the protective streak that Naruto had for their daughter and had been secured in the knowledge that Sakura would always be in good hands with such a team-mate. When Sakura had told them their 'engagement' and their wish to get married, they had been genuinely happy, and they welcomed Naruto with open arms, as they were doing right now.

Sakura felt a pang of guilt as she watched her parents' bright, happy faces; she felt deceitful. Then she turned her head to look at Naruto, who was grinning at something her grandmother was saying and her heart lightened.

She would do much more for him.

As if feeling her watching him, Naruto turned his head to meet emerald eyes, a quizzical glint entering the cerulean orbs at her intense expression. Realizing that she was staring, she looked away quickly, feeling peculiarly flustered, and improvised a quick question to her father.

"So, I heard that you have a demon within you," grandmother Haruno suddenly said loudly.

Sakura whirled her head towards the old woman, eyes wide with anger. "Obaa-San!" she burst out reproachfully, furious at her grandmother's tactlessness. A short, tensed silence followed.

"It's okay, Sakura-Chan," Naruto said, placating, but Sakura still glared angrily at her grandmother.

She had not expected and would not tolerate Naruto being pried about his Jinchuriki status. She had not been aware that her grandmother even knew about it. Her parents stayed quiet, not knowing what to say. Sakura had warned them not to ever raise the subject with Naruto, and they understood and respected that request. But her grandmother was something else, as usual.

"I really don't mind, Sakura-Chan," Naruto insisted as she was about to talk again, warm blue eyes reassuring the angry, disturbed emerald eyes and Sakura reluctantly kept quiet.

He could understand her family's concern; they were marrying their daughter with him, after all, and he guessed that they had not touched the subject at Sakura's demand.

He turned to smile gently at the old woman. "Yes, Obaa-san, I hold the Kyuubi within me. But I would never let him do any harm to anyone," he told her quietly, "Least of all to my precious people." The blue eyes shone with an inner force and resolve that the old woman immediately recognized, and she did not need to hear more.

She bowed her head at the young Hokage.

"You've got yourself a very fine man," she told a wide eyed, surprised Sakura, while Naruto rubbed the back of his head, chuckling awkwardly, feeling embarrassed.

"Now, who would want a second serving of the rice cake," Sakura's mother broke in the silence cheerfully.

Lunch was over and they were all relaxing in the sitting room when Ino and Shikamaru arrived.

"Stubborn, troublesome woman," sighed the Nara male after the general greetings, looking at his wife as Mrs Haruno fussed over her, enquiring about her health and immediately starting with a string of advises to which grandmother Haruno immediately added her own two cents.

Shikamaru was not too happy about his wife running about for shopping sprees in her condition, but of course the stubborn woman would not listen to him. "Just be sure you girls don't stay out for too long," he told Sakura quietly, away from the hearing of Ino.

"It's fine at this stage to have some exercise, Shikamaru," Sakura assured the worried father to be, "but don't worry, I'll be very quick," she promised.

"I do hope we'll have similar good news soon in our family too!" her grandmother roared from where she sat, Ino seated besides her and looking intimidated.

Sakura groaned in mortification, her face reddening and she carefully avoided everyone's eyes.

Upon learning that Sakura and Ino planned to go dress shopping, grandmother Haruno authoritatively beckoned the two girls and Sakura's mother to her room. There was no question of not obeying the command, so the three women followed her, leaving the men to chat.

The old woman bade Sakura to bring forward a huge trunk out of several which stood in the corner of the guest room before inviting the three to sit in a circle on her futon. Clicking open the numerous locks, she removed three large, flat, old looking wooden boxes and deposited them carefully in front of Sakura.

"I've brought these for you," she told the young woman. "They are your wedding gift from me." She nudged a first box towards the surprised pink haired. "Come on, open it," she said brusquely.

Sakura carefully lifted the lid of the ancient looking wooden box, to find a white, muslin-cloth wrapped parcel inside. With careful hands, she lifted the wrapped parcel and simultaneously, her mother and Ino shuffled closer, curious.

They all seemed to be holding their breath as Sakura delicately un-wrapped the parcel; then a collective loud gasp was expelled as a shimmering mass of beautifully gold-brocaded, champagne coloured silk was uncovered. With careful fingers, Sakura lifted what she soon discovered to be a stunningly beautiful kimono.

"This is a family heirloom. It was my mother's wedding kimono," grandmother Haruno said quietly.

Sakura dragged her amazed eyes away from the kimono to stare at her grandmother.

"It was handed down to me, but it has never been worn. Your wedding seems to be the right occasion for something like this."

"Obaa-san?" Sakura started, feeling that it was not appropriate to wear such a precious and important garment for this blank, temporary marriage. It did not seem right.

"I'm glad to be still alive to see you getting married, the last Haruno probably to be wedded during _my_ living time," the old woman said gruffly. "I know it's very ancient and most probably you would want something modern, but it would make me very happy to have you wear it."

Sakura breathed shakily. "Obaa-san, are you sure?" she asked, deeply touched.

"Yes, I am. It's just fitting to be yours," said the old lady.

Considering that the kimono was almost a century old, it was still in excellent, new-level condition, the aged silk as solid as it is supposed to be- silk being reputed to be the best textile material to survive time. The lapels and hem of the wide bell shaped sleeves were bordered with some elaborate embroidery of gold thread and beads which glittered with each movement.

"Wow…" Ino said in a hushed, wondered voice. "This is simply divine. They sure did things grandly in those days."

"Isn't it…" agreed Sakura's mother, as they touched the garment with respect and wonder.

"I would be honoured to wear this, Obaa-san," Sakura murmured finally, her throat tight with emotions, and her grandmother nodded, the old eyes crinkling with a smile.

The second box contained the elaborated Obi, made of golden shimmering silk, and a sheer, matching coloured head veil with the same embroidered border as the sleeves hem and lapels.

The gasps were louder when they opened the third box to find the Uchikake, the reception kimono, an astounding creation in a vibrant red brocaded silk, heavily embroidered all over with gold threads and vibrant coloured beads, among which, pink beads forming sakura flowers.

By the time they had finished exalting over the kimonos and the set of jewellery and hair sets which accompanied the garment, all the four women had moist eyes, emotions running high.

Sakura hugged her grandmother. "Thank you so much, Obaa-san," she whispered. To think it took a wedding to get her grandmother and her to be the closest she had ever recalled being, Sakura thought.

A while later, a still red-eyed Ino went to inform her very much concerned husband that the shopping trip had been cancelled. Concern turned to relief when learning that it was not for a life-death situation which would have brought about the tear-red of his wife's eyes; just that the trip was not needed anymore.

XXXXX

Naruto re-read the scroll which he had received from Suna, brows furrowed deeply. It was from the Kazekage, congratulating him on his upcoming wedding, which was just a mere three days away. Nothing unusual at that, the news must have travelled to Suna; but what attracted his puzzled attention was the positive presence written at the bottom of the card, mentioning that Gaara, his wife Matsuri, along with Temari and Kankuro would reach Konoha within the next day.

A short while later, Naruto was found seated in the small living room of the Tsunade.

"You invited Gaara?" he asked the older woman. Not that he was unhappy about it; on the contrary, he was very glad that his friend would be present. He was just surprised; it was supposed to be a _small_ wedding, afterall.

"Surely you did not intend to exclude him, not when he invited you to his own wedding," the former Godaime said in mild exasperation. "You did say close friends, didn't you?" She added with an innocent air.

"Yes, you are right," Naruto agreed slowly. It made sense, though the sneaky glint in the hazel eyes was making him wary. "So, who else is coming that I should know about?" he asked with the air of someone about to receive some fearful news.

A short silence followed. Then, "Well, the Raikage and Bee-san are expected early on the wedding day. I received their reply some days ago."

"Oh."

"And of course the Mizukage will be here as well."

"…"

"And the Tsuchikage."

"?"

"You surely wouldn't want a diplomatic blunder by not inviting the other Kages when you have invited the Kazekage, would you? You shouldn't show political favouritism in such type of things."

Naruto stared speechlessly at the blond lady. The wedding was only three days away. Surely he did not need _this _now?

XXXXX

Sakura opened her eyes to the bright autumn sun filtering through the curtains of her window on the day which was to be her wedding day. She blinked, remaining motionless for a short instance, gathering her thoughts. Then, before she could get her brain to kick off, there was a loud, impatient knock on her door and the loud, cheerful voice of Ino resonated.

"Wake up, Forehead, there's no time to laze around!"

The still bleary eyed bride-to-be opened the door to her four chirpy, overly cheerful friends, Ino, Ten-Ten, Hinata and Temari, who, without waiting, immediately trooped in the room, all blabbering at the same about what needed to be done.

"The ceremony is still hours away!" Sakura grumbled incredulously as she watched, impressed despite herself, as the young women started to unpack the bags they had carried with them, turning her bed and side table into a happy chaotic mess of jars and tubes and vials of stuff she could not even begin to know what it was for.

"You will not believe how the time will be short, Sakura," Ten-Ten drawled while Hinata nodded in solemn agreement.

Ino, four months pregnant belly just having started to show, firmly pushed the pink haired outside the room. "Have some breakfast first before we get started," the Nara woman shooed her off.

It was not as if she much say in the matter, thought Sakura, much to her chagrin, and made her way to the equally crowded kitchen, where her aunts and uncles and Kami knew who else busily bustled about.

XXXXXX

Naruto felt dazed, for once, unable to make his usual boisterous conversation, as he stood in the bustle of his room, people hurrying in and out, while a much calmer Shikamaru and Neji helped him to put some finishing touches on the complicated kimono, hakama and long haori set made in rich, navy coloured silk.

"I can't believe all the fuss that a wedding comprises of," Naruto said nervously.

His house had been practically taken over by a crowd hours ago, the loud yapping of Akamaru only adding to the cheerful blustering about. On top of it, he felt quaky as he had no idea, literally, what awaited him. He had started to think maybe it had been a bad idea to leave Tsunade with such a free reign on the wedding preparation. It seemed that the former Godaime had gone over the top, but had cheerfully avoided giving Naruto precise replies when he had asked about details.

Shikamaru sighed. "Be thankful that Sakura did not turn into a bridezilla," he said, "whereas _I_ got to deal with a complete maid-zilla."

Ino had been ferocious in the preparation of this wedding, which, added with her already her hormonal state, had made the poor Nara male wishing fervently for this day to be over so that he get some peace back.

"Ready, Naruto?" Iruka asked, appearing at the doorway.

The former academy teacher, now headmaster of that same institution, looked very elegant in black kimono. He still felt surprised and immensely privileged at task given to him; that of representing the father of the groom, who would give away Naruto.

"Done," Neji replied, adding the last finishing touch of the groom's attire; a ceremonial sword sheathed at the side.

XXXXX

Naruto could hear the low hmm of a gathering as the groom's party reached the village shrine. The high walls prevented him from having a visual on the court from which the hmm was coming from, and the party was promptly ushered in the shrine building through a side door. When, a while later, Naruto appeared at the altar which faced the court, he almost fainted.

The huge open aired, florally decorated court – Ino's work - was filled _to the pack_ with elegantly dressed guests seated in the traditional way on Tatami mats, with the four guest Kages seated on the front row.

Considering the size of the place, the young Hokage estimated about three hundred, if not more, people there.

A joyful cheer went up the crowd at the appearance of the groom, dispelling any solemn atmosphere which a wedding ceremony usually comprised of.

"Hokage-sama, don't faint on us, that's for the bride to do!" a voice joyfully shouted as Naruto had paled, visibly very flustered.

Naruto gulped and bravely smiled back at the crowd, raising a waving hand in greeting. His groomsmen took their respective places behind him. As Naruto had utmost difficulty from choosing from the group, finally, dressed in black formal kimonos, stood Sai, Shikamaru, Chouji, Neiji, Lee, Kiba, Shino and Konohamaru; _eight_ groomsmen. For once, Akamaru had been separated from his master, sitting with a forlorn air a distance from the altar.

Tsunade and Iruka came to stand at the forefront, representing the parents of the groom; Iruka stood tall, intent on carrying out his part well, while Tsunade smirked at the astounded, questioning look that Naruto sent her. The priest stood on the side, silent and solemn.

Shizune and Kakashi were the hosts and busy receiving and seating the still incoming guests.

As Naruto scanned the sea of faces, occasionally waving his hand back to a greeting, he felt a pang when he could not see spiky black hair among the crowd. He had gone in person to invite Sasuke, and the Uchiha had bluntly told him that he was not sure to come.

At Naruto's pained expression, Sasuke had grudgingly added, "It's not because I refuse the honor…It's just that socialising events and crowds are not my thing, you know that." He himself had a wedding of barely a handful of people in the Hokage's office. The admission had softened the rejection, but Naruto still felt saddened that the wayward member of team 7 had not made an appearance.

Asano, the 8 years old son of Kurenai and late Asuma, and the ring bearer, suddenly tugged his Godfather's sleeve.

"Not now, Asano," Shikamaru whispered at the corner of his mouth. The little boy had already been to the loo, twice.

The little boy tugged insistently.

"You really must retain it," sighed Shikamaru discreetly. "The bride is about to arrive anytime, we don't have time now."

"Shikamaru-Onii san, it's troublesome," the little boy whispered back, "I think I've lost the ring."

Shikamaru eyes snapped wide. "WHAT?"

There was an urgent whispered discussion among the eight groomsmen followed by an immediate scramble to find the ring.

"What's happening," hissed Naruto nervously, watching his groomsmen all practically on their knees.

"Nothing, all's fine," quickly assured a nervously chuckling Kiba before discreetly resuming his careful sniff of the ground. But the ring had been handled by too many people; it was difficult to distinguish Asano's scent on the small metal, as he had been hoping to.

"Everything's under control," laughed Konohamaru nervously at the increasingly frowning groom.

"Neji, try your Byakugan," whispered Lee urgently. The Hyuuga quickly nodded and activated his eyes.

Sai, in meantime, had whipped out his sketch pad and paintbrush from under the lapels of his Kimono and started to draw an army of mice.

The vision of a flurry of mice scurrying among the assembly of guests, with the most probable result of a panicked, screaming mob, traipsing on the carefully and painstakingly floral decorations done by Ino, guaranteeing a mega meltdown and bashing of his maid-zilla and very much pregnant hormonal wife, flashed through Shikamaru's mind as he watched the artist about to perform the release Jutsu...

The Nara's eyes widened in panic. "_Don't!_" he hissed, frantic, his Kagemane automatically having shot out to stop Sai from releasing the jutsu. "You want to create a total chaos or what?"

"What's going on?" Naruto demanded more urgently now, looking at the hand-in-air frozen Sai, the still sniffing Kiba, Lee, Chouji and Konohamaru crouching low, Neji with his activated Byakugan, and were those _bugs_? Had Shino released his bugs?

By that time, even Tsunade, Kakashi and Iruka was frowning darkly at the eight groomsmen's strange, unacceptable behaviour, while the priest was trying to politely ignore the strange occurrence.

"What _"

"I think you are looking for this."

Naruto jerked his head at the sound of the low voice, and watched, eyes widening, as Sasuke, dressed in a grey kimono, looking extremely ill at ease, walked forward to the side of the altar and discreetly handed something to Shikamaru. "I found it at the entrance," the Uchiha told the Nara in a quiet voice, before turning to nod at the now widely grinning groom.

"Sasuke!" The blond was beyond happy at the sight of his friend.

"Naruto."

Naruto then realised that it was the wedding ring that Sasuke had given to Shikamaru. He glared incredulously at the group of groomsmen.

"You _lost_ the ring?" These were supposed to be the top of the elite, the most powerful shinobis of Konoha, and they managed to lose a ring? "What type of groomsmen, eight on top of it, can't even ensure that a single, mere wedding ring is safe?" exclaimed Naruto indignantly.

Konohamaru pointed accusingly at the little Asano, but Naruto cut his about-to-start explanation.

"Asano-Chan is not even a Genin, and you are all _above_ Jounin levels!"

Said men hang their head, Sai finally released, Sasuke still standing on the altar, surrounded as he was by the ridiculously huge crowd of groom's men, failing in his trying to edge away, while the groom continued his indignant grumbling.

Naruto was cut in mid-tirade by the sound of the nuptial flutes' music, which announced the arrival of the bride. The group of men immediately jumped back to place, Sasuke managed to discreetly escape but not before Naruto's mouthed word of "see you later". Shikamaru pushed Naruto back to the front, to face the assembly and the bridal procession.

_Facing her._

The blue eyes widened and his jaw slacked.

She stood on her beaming father's arm, her mother and Grandmother on the other side, the bridesmaids behind, but Naruto had eyes only for her.

XXXXX

Sakura felt her head spin at the sheer size of the crowd attending the wedding. Now she understood why Ino and her mother had been _very_ vague when she had asked about the number of invitee which would attend. She was questioning her blind faith in having given carted blanche to the two, and in retrospect, knowing that Tsunade-Shishou had been the one organising on Naruto's side, she should have been alerted about something brewing up.

The music started, her cue to start walking, and she quelled all thoughts about strangling the two sneaky women. It was too late to cry over spilled milk now. And to be honest, she was feeling too dazzled after hours of pampering, made up, hair done and wearing the astoundingly beautiful wedding kimono of her forebear. The dress was fit for a princess, and she _felt_ like a princess, decked as she was!

The girls had done an excellent job with her hair – a small part was gathered up her head in an elegant updo held by the antique decorative combs, while the remaining was left loose and some brought to one side, the luxuriant pink curls cascading down her front, some tiny daisies plopped randomly in the curls. The sheer, embroidered veil was secured on her head and left to flow freely at the back, grazing the floor as she took the tiny steps that the kimono allowed her to. Much to her relief, the girls had been light with the make up, enhancing her features instead of covering them up.

She could not help blushing at the admirative murmurs that rose up as she stepped into the aisle leading to the altar, and she instinctively tightened her hold on her father's arm.

"You are doing fine," her father whispered soothingly.

Sakura raised her eyes to look up at the altar and for one instance, she faltered. Emerald eyes met cerulean blue across the distance.

She felt an involuntary shiver running through her whole being and everything, everyone seemed to fade in the background as she looked at the tall, navy clad man awaiting her.

In another era, another life, her star eyed, full of delusions, foolish twelve-year old self used to fantasise about a dark haired, mysterious, aloof and brooding Uchiha Sasuke standing waiting for her at the altar.

But the one actually standing there, waiting for her was someone who she knew as she knew herself, was all but dark, the bright, sunny blond hair falling over the even brighter blue eyes that was so achingly familiar and his warmth reaching out to her even from the distance, tugging at something deep within her heart.

The strength of her emotions shook her. Even if this was a blank marriage, she felt a wonderful warmth invading every core of her being. Unbidden, her lips tugged into a small, tremulous smile. Just _looking_ at him made her feel stronger and her nervousness disappeared, and she stood straighter.

Her father gently tugged his arm, indicating her to continue to advance.

Naruto felt a sudden heat rushed through his heart and guts as their eyes had locked; then she had smiled. A small, soft smile. And he was bowled over. He watched the ethereal image walking up to him and was sent back to his little boy self, who had vowed to marry the pretty pink haired, green eyed girl.

"Close that mouth," drawled Shikamaru in a low voice, eliciting some chuckles from the other groomsmen. Naruto's jaw had dropped so low that the Nara could see his full range of teeth.

Those already married of the group felt reminiscent. They knew what it was to have the first glimpse of the fully decked bride; the magic, that gut wrenching feeling, the breathlessness… so they were aware of what the young Hokage must be feeling right now, having already been there.

Naruto gulped his mouth close and awaited with bated breath the procession slowly approached, his attention focussed on her alone, the small smile still floating around her lips as she finally reached the altar.

Unable to help himself, he promptly leaned towards her as she made to stand by his side, facing the guests as per the tradition. "You are _beautiful_, Sakura-Chan!" he whispered, not low enough since the priest immediately cleared his throat, while the best men smirked.

Gripped by a ridiculous shyness, Sakura felt her face warming up. "You're looking good too," she managed to whisper back an instance later, this time low enough that only the groom heard her.

The ceremony went through a blur after that. The couple were purified, the sake drank ceremoniously; the vows pronounced in a solemn, subdued voice, a guilt running fleetingly through both, but strangely, despite that, all of it felt so queerly right that the flash was swiftly disregarded. Then the rings were exchanged, and the crowd cheered as the priest declared them husband and wife.

When the couple emerged from the shrine a while later, an even greater crowd awaited them outside, cheering and acclaiming the newly wedded couple.

Many, if not most, of the ladies were sniffing and wiping their eyes, Ino being in the top of the run.

"What's wrong with women?" demanded Konohamaru, staring, utterly baffled, at the sniffleling Moegi. "Weddings are supposed to be joyful occasion!"

"It's a woman thing," Kiba said knowingly. "Apparently snivelling like this means there're having a good time. They'll be allright when they get some champagne inside them!"

That earned him a prompt whack on the head by the already hormonal driven emotional Ino, and a sharp elbow jab from an equally red eyed Saira, his fiancée, typical Izunaka fiery temper running through her blood.

XXXXX

"Did you know about all this?" Sakura asked Naruto later, at sundown, as they stood, utterly dazed, in the huge white lavishly decorated marquee set up on one of the training grounds for the reception, watching the even bigger crowd than the wedding ceremony having a blast.

The newly wedded couple made a breathtaking, striking picture. Naruto stood tall and very handsome in his navy wedding garbs, while Sakura wore the vibrant red Uchikake over her wedding gown, the head veil had been removed to uncover her jewelled hair updo.

"No idea at all," Naruto chuckled.

Tsunade had airily waved aside his concerns about the cost of all this when he had anxiously managed to slide the question earlier on. "Most of it had been gifts," the older woman had told the young Rokudaime truthfully. She had not been the only one to have been very willing to pitch in this wedding, much to her surprise.

"They sure went out of their way," Sakura smiled ruefully, watching her radiant mother, Ino, Shizune and Tsunade busying around, ensuring everything was fine, while all their friends circulated among the guests, taking the role of hosts dedicatedly. Let it not be said that Uzumaki Naruto was family-less, thought the pink-haired girl.

"Yeah, they did."

"Shouldn't we feel bad about all this?" Sakura asked.

Naruto grinned. "Nope. Now let's go drink that champagne!" With a flourish, he presented her with his crooked arm, cerulean eyes dancing at the beautiful emerald orbs of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. "Let's hit the party, Mrs Uzumaki."

Sakura felt taken aback at the new name, being the first time she was addressed thus, then, grinning back, she took the offered arm. She was in no mood to dwelve deeply into things; the whole festive, surreal mood was simply too intoxicating.

Everything would be fine; it always did when it involved _him_.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN**

**- Thanks, once more, to everyone for reading, reviewing, alert-ing and favorite- ing this story (yeah, invented words.)  
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**- I have added some more AN notes at the end.**

_**It started out smoothly enough….**_

**XXXXX**

Sakura woke up from the dregs of sleep and looked around, wondering where she was for a minute. Then the past twenty four hours flooded in her mind.

Their wedding.

It had been very late, near midnight, when the reception party had finally tapered down. Then, she and Naruto had been merrily pushed in a waiting horse carriage for a surprise honeymoon gift from the whole group of friends; another sneaky machination that the two had not been aware of nor expecting. They had not planned on any bogus honeymoon, the need of it being obsolete seeing the circumstances of the marriage, but it seemed that their friends had other ideas.

The destination chosen had been the hot spring resort situated an hour carriage-drive away from the village. Not wanting to create a fuss and resigned, the two newly weds had decided why not accepting the well deserved break and thus found themselves, one hour drive later, at the resort, with the honeymoon suit booked for them; room which obviously had only one bed.

At Sakura's tired, questioning eyes, Naruto had immediately informed her that he would take the comfortable looking couch. He had slept in much worse and it was certainly not the first time that they would be sharing accommodation like such.

Exhausted and slightly boozed up, Sakura had been thankful that before leaving the reception, Ino had taken her to the private areas at the back of the marquee to get changed into a simpler, travel friendlier dress; she would not have had the energy to get out of the complicated wedding kimono all by herself. She wondered, baffled, how any bride, in that matter, would have any energy left for _anything_ else after such type of exhausting event that was a wedding. Ino had also packed some necessities for her, among which, to her relief, Sakura had found her own not-too-naughty nightdress, into which she changed after a quick shower.

Naruto had not been in sight when she had emerged from the en-suite bathroom, most probably having left the room to give her privacy. The last thing she remembered was creeping under the blankets, after ensuring that she placed a set of blankets on the couch for Naruto, and she must have fallen asleep before he had returned.

Said blond was now nowhere in sight, and seeing the haphazardly folded blankets on the couch, she deduced he must have been up and about already. Judging by the intensity of the sun rays, it was quite late in the morning. Quickly going through her morning routine and getting dressed – again, all the necessary things having packed by a thoughtful Ino - Sakura went to look for Naruto.

She found him meditating in the small attached garden, sitting cross legged on the edge of a small pond. Not wanting to disturb him, she found herself studying him, the angle from where she stood offering his profile as perusal, his spine straight, head slightly bowed and eyes closed. Even seated and still, his body carried a lithe grace and power. She almost laughed aloud; to think that once he had been the clumsiest of all. The rush of emotions she had felt during the ceremony came to her mind, and she bit her lower lip, heart flipping and troubled, wondering at what sort of awkwardness and complications it would bring if let unleashed.

"Sakura-chan! You're awake." His cheerful voice broke into her worried thoughts and she looked at him as in a smooth movement, he stood up and bounced towards her. "Let's go have some breakfast now; I'm famished!" he urged.

He was her usual, easy Naruto, grinning brightly, eyes clear and open as he reached her side and she breathed more easily. Chuckling, she teased him as he urged her forward towards the resort dining room. "Always hungry!"

They were in the middle of eating when a figure blurred into view in front of them; it was an ANBU and both immediately tensed.

"I am deeply sorry for disturbing, Hokage-sama, Sakura-sama," he bowed and Naruto recognized him as one of his trusted staff attached to the Hokage tower. "You are needed in Konoha immediately."

They learnt, to their distress, that there had been a failed attack attempt on the northern side of Konoha boundary. Naruto and his team had been anticipating and preparing for something in this direction, seeing that the five kages were reunited in Konoha and he was aggrieved that their fear had been correct. At least the tightened patrol security they had put in place had worked, thus the _failed_ attempt.

Under normal circumstances, this sort of situation would have been supervised by Kakashi, to whom Naruto had left the temporary heading of his executive team, but since the other kages were still in Konoha, the situation had seemed politically sensitive enough for Kakashi and the others to have deemed it better for the Hokage himself to return.

Naruto sighed. There went their break; it had seemed too good to be true. Duty call always came first, he had long realized as a Hokage.

It was a good thing that this was not a real honeymoon, she could not help thinking, otherwise it would have been a huge downer.

**XXXXX**

Naruto sat at the kitchen table, taking his time sipping his tea after having finished his breakfast, while he waited for Sakura to eventually alight from her room. She had finished her shift very late the previous night and today being her day off, she was sleeping in. He lingered, hoping she would wake up before he left for office, wishing to meet her at least before setting out for the day.

It was going to be another cloudy day, he noted, looking through the wide glass bay of the cozy, full equipped kitchen of the Hokage residence, the morning timid autumn sunrays barely piercing through the clouds.

It was hard to believe that it was already three weeks since he and Sakura had been married.

As he had foreseen, it had been easy to get adjusted to living together, them being so close and used to each other's way for so long; their co-habitation was going on without a hitch. He would say it was inherently easy, he and Sakura living together.

He had been anxious about ensuring that she felt no discomfort and that there was no room for her to complain, so he put his all to make sure that things go as smoothly as possible. They had set some basic ground rules of co-habitation so that there were no hiccups, such as: respecting each other's privacy and space bubble when needed; no barging in each other's room without permission; having a proper time schedule of the use of the single bathroom of the upper floor in the morning, and being that most of the times it was Sakura who woke up earlier, she had the first use until a specific time; cleaning after their own clutters in the common areas even if they had Akemi to houseclean, though not surprisingly, it was Sakura who very often found herself cleaning after him, which caused some scolding to ensure; sharing little tasks which was not for the housekeeper, like washing the dinner plates, and each responsible for their own laundry. All of it had oiled the living together.

When Sakura had raised the question of costs, Naruto had been adamant of shouldering all the food expenses on top of the usual home expenses, despite her protests.

"The cost of one additional mouth is not going to make me go bankrupt," he had insisted stubbornly when Sakura had argued that she should at least contribute to the food finance, and she had to finally back off from his non-budging stance.

The days following the wedding had smoothly fallen into a pattern – that is, as smoothly as their work schedule permitted them.

The mornings, they would have breakfast together, before setting out for work. On very rare exceptions, as today or in case of an early morning emergency at the hospital, he would have breakfast alone, but till now it had been for only a couple of times.

They had still kept their occasional morning sparring sessions _and_ lunches together whenever their tight schedules allowed them, at Naruto belligerent insistence. Living together did not mean that he would give up those, he had told her firmly.

The rare late afternoons and early evenings when _both_ of them managed to leave work early enough were spent together. Sometimes they would meet their friends, whoever was available, for a drink or simply hanging about, and, if the weather were still warm enough, they would stay out till later or if the autumn cold and rainy weather forced them inside, they would be at home to do some chores which did not form part of Akemi's duties.

Late evenings and dinners were mostly at home, both preferring to be in after a tiring workday, and Akemi's excellent cooking was always a good incentive to eat at home. The few exceptions were the times when they dined out, which was mostly on Akemi's one day off per week off.

Then after dinner, they would lounge in the living room, either doing something together like playing some games, or Sakura would read her huge medical volumes or work on some reports while he would laze around, relaxing or dozing off, or in the some cases, bug her just for the sake of it, before each of them would finally retire in their respective bedrooms.

It had been a little complicated explaining the separate bedrooms to Akemi and it would have been impossible to hide it from her.

"Sakura-Chan works at such odd hours at the hospital, she needs her own room to rest when necessary," Naruto had told the housekeeper convincingly, telling the most plausible excuse he and Sakura had worked out.

The elderly lady had clucked her tongue. "Youths of today!" She had exclaimed, scandalized. "In my time, it was unheard of that a husband and wife have separate bedrooms!"

But she did not push the matter further because she knew first hand that the Hokage was in good care. She had herself been recruited by the young pink haired medic-nin who had always ensured that the Hokage's well-being was well taken care of. Fiercely loyal as she was to the Hokage, it had never been a question on doubting Akemi's discretion on the separate sleeping arrangement.

Being the Hokage, Naruto was mostly stationed within the village, and being the head medic-nin of Konoha hospital and attached to the Hokage as his medic security when he travelled, Sakura rarely had out of village missions, thus their timetables were quite stable compared to the usual gruelling schedule of most shinobis. All in all, things were good in the young Hokage's book.

Naruto sighed contently. He loved, no, scratch that, he _adored_ being 'married' to Sakura. He adored that he no longer was the only Uzumaki…there were now two Uzumakis. Akemi's duty ending in early afternoon after she had prepared dinner, she had always been gone by the time Naruto returned home, and now he adored that the house no longer feel huge and dispiritedly lonely when he returned each evening; he had someone to look forward to return to. It gave him a thrill to see a second pair of feminine shoes next to his on the doorstep, instead of his only. He adored how he woke up each morning knowing that she slept so close and safe, only a few steps away in the next room.

He adored how her things had been included around in the house; her comfortable green couch now sitting in the living room, some knick-knacks and souvenirs on the fire mantle and on the coffee table, her toiletries arranged neatly on one side in the bathroom cabinet. It was barely three weeks since she's been here but the feminine touch in the house was already discernable.

Naruto was snapped out of his reverie when the one of his thoughts finally made her appearance.

"Good morning, Naruto." A visibly still sleepy Sakura walked in the kitchen, a wide yawn retained behind her hand, barefooted, wearing grey sweatpants and black fitted T-shirt, hair tied in a low necked ponytail.

Naruto beamed at the sight of her. "Good morning, Sakura-chan!" he chirped.

Sakura blinked at the usual bright smile. Her eyes took in the sunny blond hair and the sky blue eyes, typically projecting the image of warmth. Sunshine, thought Sakura, still groggy; brighter than outside, where the actual astral body was getting sparser as the season proceeded forward, she grumbled to herself.

"Bad night?" he asked solicitously as he watched her rubbing the back of her neck tiredly.

"Hmm," she replied. "You've finished?" she asked, glancing at his empty plate.

"Yeah, sorry, I have to leave soon you were taking too long."

"It's okay," she waved his apology away as she started to gather her usual breakfast fare from the table: cereal, the jar of warm milk and a deep red apple. She rarely had the stomach for the full-course breakfast that Akemi prepared for Naruto.

He pushed the tea pot towards her as she sat opposite him, and she poured herself a piping hot cup of tea and sipped it with obvious enjoyment, her sleepy fog slowly clearing, as always, after her favourite morning must.

"I had an emergency operation late last night," she told him as she spooned some cereal in her bowl before pouring the warm milk over it and started to eat.

"Nothing too serious I hope?" he enquired.

"He's fine now. Broken femur. A jounin, returning from a mission. It was an accident, he slipped on a rocky cliff. The rain of the past days had result in tricky grounds."

"Oh. I'm sure I'll have the full report of the accident in my desk waiting."

"Yeah. At least it's something mundane as an accident; not an attack like the last time."

He nodded. He and his team had been working assiduously on the attack on the morning of their wedding. The six jounins on patrol on the attacked area had not yielded much information for them to get along, apart from the info that it had been a group of four masked shinobis, who, as soon as they had started to be out-forced, had retreated. The jounins had given a chase but the enemy had disappeared, leaving no trace.

"What are your plans for the day?" he asked. It was her first day off since they had been 'married'.

"Among other things, I'll have to go to the market." She had finished her cereal and reached for her apple, deftly started to peel the red fruit before cutting it into slices. "We need to replenish the pantry," she said, slapping the sneaky hand which was trying to steal her apple slices from her plate.

Prior to their marriage, it had been Akemi's task to go to the market, but Sakura had dispensed the housekeeper of that duty. She had always enjoyed the mundane activity of browsing through the market whenever her hospital schedule had allowed her, so she preferred to do it herself now. She had not had the time since the three weeks she had moved in, so today was the ideal day to see to it.

"Will you need more money?" Naruto asked and she shook her head, again having to slap the offending hand away from her plate, but this time he managed to get the slice – as usual. He slid another apple towards her, though and without battling her eyes, she started to peel the second fruit, while he snagged a second slice off her plate.

"I haven't yet used all from what you gave me," she told him. He had already handed her the home allowance for the month.

She was already thinking ahead of her day. She had been thinking of giving Akemi the rest of the day off, meaning that either they would eat out that night or she would cook dinner, more opting for the latter.

He waited for her to finish her apple then stood up, feeling dejected. It was hard to go to work knowing that she would be free the whole day, whereas he would have to be cropped up in an office, the council elders having summoned him for what he knew was to be another lengthy, boring meeting.

He picked up his Hokage robe from the back of his chair and shrugged into it. "Well, see you later then," he said and she smiled up at him.

"See you."

**XXXXX**

Naruto felt utterly bored and itchy to get out of the room as he sit through a meeting with the two Konoha elders, listening with only half a mind to the droning discussion about finances and expenditures. Not that he was not concerned about the finances under his ruling, but _this_ particular discussion he had already been gone through before and he was not about to change his mind; he had set a comfortable annual fund for the war-orphans of Konoha and nothing the elders would say would change that.

It was just his worst luck that when Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado had been forced to retire from the council, they had been replaced with another equally austere and annoying pair of cronies, whose main aim seemed to be to undermine all decisions that the Rokudaime made. Life would have been much, much simpler without such types of elders in the council, thought the young Hokage, aggravated.

"Why should the hard earned money be spilled in such way," Akio, the male elder, was saying. "A quarter of what you are allocating should be enough." He was the one who had been most opposed to Naruto's ascending to Hokage, and the one to make most of the snide remarks about his unmarried status.

Shikamaru, also present in the meeting being the main consultant and strategist of the Hokage's office, retained a sigh and looked at the young Hokage, feeling his irritation.

His jaw clenched, Naruto gritted, "I said this before, the parents of these children died for Konoha and the alliance; consider it as a compensation for their lives given in duty. I won't change my stance on this. Our accountant assures us that the figure is workable, so _," He suddenly stopped in mid-sentence and froze, blue eyes suddenly taking a blank and far-away look. A silence lapsed while the other three people in the room waited for him to resume, then he unfroze.

He suddenly stood up. "I need to leave," he announced without preamble, to the surprise of his strategist and indignation of the pair of elders.

"What?" The two old council members were clearly affronted at such a blatant disrespect from the Rokudaime.

Naruto smirked, unaffected by their angry spluttered protests and was already moving away. "I think we are long done here," he threw over his shoulder. "I have some important… _domestic_ duties to carry out at the market. See you later, Shikamaru."

He winked saucily at the couple who had been the hardcore in pushing him in a corner about his marital status, then in a blink, was off, leaving them in their outraged astonishment and own angry blunderings.

Shikamaru stared at already retreating back of the blond in exasperation, feeling a headache mounting. By the time the two elders had come to their feet, the young Hokage was long gone. It was not as if they could follow him as well, since the blond had went through the window.

Shikamaru sighed. Trust the Rokudaime to use the window as gateway,

_Market, huh?_ The Nara sighed again. Judging by the telltale frozen, far away look Naruto had just before deciding to scamper off, Shikamaru deduced that a clone must have been dispelled somewhere, releasing its gathered information; most probably a spying clone. He further deduced that the Hokage's wife must be going to the market today. The Nara decided to be indulgent for once. He knew what it was to be newly married and wanting to spend all the time with one's other half.

When he turned his head away from the window to look back into the room, he found himself at the receiving end of two pairs of furious eyes.

Why was it that with the Rokudaime, he found himself too often left with the damage control? thought the Nara in utter exasperation.

**XXXXX**

Glad that the sun had finally, timidly come out, Sakura felt cheerful as she made her way towards the market, a big hamper bag dangling from her hand. She nearly reached her destination when she was halted by the sudden figure landing lithely beside her, maroon Hokage robes billowing about, spiky blond hair falling over blue eyes.

"Naruto!" She looked at him, startled.

"Sakura-chan! Nice weather for shopping, huh?" Naruto grinned down at her, promptly taking her big hamper bag and nudging her to continue walking, his intentions clear.

Sakura quirked an eyebrow at him. "Don't you have more important things to do in the office?" she questioned.

He shrugged, nonchalant. "Oh no, I was literally turning my thumbs in idleness," he said in a conspiratorial low tone, sending a silent apology to his strategist whom he had abandoned to manage the crisis he was sure to have left.

Sakura threw him a disbelieving sideways stare. In the least, knowing how he always had a stack of unfinished report on his desk, being so closely similar to his predecessor in that area, she could hardly believe that statement. "So you decided to roam about in town," she stated, deadpan.

"Yeah, it does form part of my Hokage duties, you know," he said solemnly, all innocent, while the blue eyes danced, "to ensure that the people are doing fine, and help some damsel in shopping distress along the way."

Sakura huffed and rolled her eyes, though she was happy for the company. Shortly, they reached the market.

Said market was two parallel trails of canopy covered stalls which went on for at least half a mile, amidst which shoppers and vendors alike bustled about noisily. Throwing themselves into the fray of bicycling men, hamper carrying housewives, cane supported grandmothers bent at the waist and young mothers towing clinging children, Naruto and Sakura got started. As soon as they stepped into the crowd, an immediate buzz went around, shoppers and vendors noticing that the Hokage and his wife were amidst them.

Known by everyone as head medic-nin and frequent shopper that she was, Sakura had always been greeted with respected familiarity by the merchants; same for Naruto, even though less frequent to the market than her since his ascension to hokageship, he had always been cheerfully welcomed since the Pein attack. But on that day, being the first time they were at the market since the wedding, the effervescence of the crowd was startling.

Enthusiastic greetings erupted from everywhere. "Hokage-sama! Sakura-sama!"

Playing his role of Hokage to perfection, Naruto took the time to greet each people, and while it still jolted Sakura to be addressed with the sama title, she reasoned that she should get used to it as she greeted the people back and smilingly murmured thanks for the good wishes for their wedding.

They tried to hurry through the crowd, their intended destination being the food and vegetables section, but they had first to walk through the non-perishable unit which consisted of everything imaginable, ranging from kitchen wares like pots and pans, to clothing and footwear, not forgetting handicrafts of all sorts. Soon, they were stalled by the swiftly accosting swarm of vendors, all haggling for the attention of the couple.

"Hokage-sama, Sakura-sama, please have a look at my handcrafted wooden figurines," one vendor eagerly invited.

"I sell the best knives of the country!" another said.

Not wanting to displease the merchants, Naruto took some time to politely admire their articles. A short while later, Sakura was getting impatient as Naruto spent yet another precious span of time lagging in front of a brightly colored kimono stall, while the vendor was earnestly trying to sell off his products to him.

"This one would look great on the lovely Mrs Uzumaki!" the man was saying and Naruto looked at the indicated article, a vivid green and blue thing, with interest.

Friendly and nice as they were, Sakura was used to the assiduous marketing of the people in here and knew how to politely but firmly refuse them, but Naruto was obviously gullible enough to fall for their buttering up as he seemed to seriously consider purchasing the thing.

"The kimono is very nice, but we are sorry, I don't need it," Sakura politely told the vendor before grabbing Naruto's arm and pulling him away. "Come on," she urged the blond in a low voice, intent on getting to the food area as quickly as possible. "They are very adept at marketing their products, so be firm in refusing," she warned, "otherwise before you know it you will find yourself loaded with a ton of unwanted things for 'the lovely Mrs Uzumaki'." She said the last part accompanied by an eyeroll.

"Hey," Naruto protested, letting himself be tagged as she walked a step ahead of him, his eyes lingering with pleasure on the untied, visibly just washed long pink flowing tresses in front of him, "surely I can buy at least one thing for the_" his voice dropped an octave "__lovely Mrs Uzumaki_."

Snorting, Sakura turned to look at him, expecting to see laughter on his face, but instead met serious cerulean blue eyes, a mysterious, intense glint alighting them.

Sudden flustered green eyes stared at him a tad bit longer than necessary and she bumped into a passing shopper. Having no retort ready, she hurriedly turned her face away and fought down a blush, leaving the hold on his arm and speeding up her steps so that she was a few paces ahead.

"Hokage-sama!" A petite, elderly woman practically threw herself in the couple's way and they had no choice but to halt. "I would be honored if you would have a look at my sets of unique, lovely hair combs, all handcrafted by the best artisan of the five nations," the grey haired woman effused, bowing her head at them.

Once more, short of being rude, they could not ignore the vendor, so, a bit disgruntled, Sakura had no choice but to step beside Naruto as he walked to the designated stall. Politely, the couple stood as the woman enthusiastically displayed her wide, and they had to admit, stunning variety of ornate, jewelled combs.

Naruto attention was immediately drawn to silver one, mounted with two jade green leaves and a pink sakura flower at the center, some pearls randomly scattered around the setting.

"This one is pretty," he commented, pointing at it and despite Sakura's discreet pull on his arm, he waited for the vendor to eagerly hand it to him.

"Yes! The colours would perfectly suit the beautiful Mrs Uzumaki!" the old woman immediately beamed.

Naruto grinned. "Yes. It will definitely suit the beautiful Mrs Uzumaki." His voice was warm with an undercurrent of laughter, blue eyes dancing at the reddening said person. "I'll take it," he told the happy vendor and ignoring Sakura's whispered protests.

Delighted at having been able to persuade the young Hokage to a purchase and seeing the way his beautiful wife was blushing, the old woman decided to be more forward. "Here, why don't you put it your wife's hair yourself, Hokage-sama?" she proposed, eager for some romantic excitement to break their everyday routine.

Before a nonplussed Naruto or the confounded Sakura could place a word, a couple of voices had joined in. "Yes, please do, Hokage-sama! It is said to bring good omen to a couple!" a standing-by woman pressed, immediately backed by a few others. By then, a small assembly of shoppers and vendors had gathered around, eager to watch the 'handsome Hokage getting a comb for his lovely wife'.

Naruto looked at a pink-faced Sakura, eyes questioning. Knowing they did not have much a gateway out of this unless disappointing some romantic housewives, who, in their own way, were only showing their support and affection for the Hokage, Sakura nodded and wordlessly presented him with the side of her head.

Naruto shifted closer and rather clumsily – the strongest shinobi he may be but adept hairstylist he was not – gathered a thick strand of luscious, soft pink hair, as per the direction of the expert vendor and under rapt attention of their small gushing audience, his fingers brushing against her temple as he did so.

"Like this?" he asked the vendor as he twisted the pink strand up, the sweet fruity scent of Sakura's shampoo waffling to his nose. The petite vendor nodded in satisfied approval.

The graze of his fingers against her temple and scalp as he manipulated her hair caused her senses to sharpen more than necessary, and Sakura stood mouse-still while he topped her, so close, by his nearly one foot in height difference and he finally gently plopped the comb in place.

"There, it's done." He did not stepped back immediately and a happy sigh rose from the small gathering.

"You make a beautiful couple. And isn't she lovely?" exclaimed the happy vendor.

Naruto nodded, grinning. "That, she is," he agreed wholeheartedly.

Deciding that she had turned red enough for the day, Sakura quickly stepped away. Thanking the old woman, she turned to resume her trek towards the food and vegetables area while the small gathering dispersed.

"No more unnecessary stops now," she warned the still grinning blond above her shoulder, a little more belligerently than she would have liked, as he followed her.

A while later, though, Naruto stood practically drooling in front of a stand loaded with all ingredients needed for ramen: from the large variety of fresh noodles to the large assortments of trims that usually go with a ramen recipe.

Sakura sighed exasperatedly. "I said no more unnecessary stops," she reminded him.

The hamper bag was already full with their shopping of the day: a wide assortment fresh greens, vegetables, and fruits; onions, rice, miso, pickled daikon, mushrooms, ginger, eggs, fresh fish, some meat... They were done and it was time to head out for home now.

"Sakura-chan, ramen!" Naruto beseeched.

"Nope." She was NOT going to cook ramen for dinner. She already had her dose, two times since the beginning of the week, of ramen at Ichiraku to want to have the thing again for dinner tonight.

"Please?" His stomach chose that instant to emit a loud growl and she stared at him. "I'm hungry," he said defensively.

"Dinner is at least two hours away!"

"You can prepare a pre-dinner meal."

Sakura glared at him wordlessly.

"Look, everything's here; it's just a question of mixing all of them them in a pot!"

"As if it's as simple as that, baka! And you know I'm not so good at cooking ramen!"

"Your ramen is always very delicious, Sakura-Chan," Naruto lied manfully.

"Naruto!" Green eyes glowered.

"Sakura-chaaaan!" Blue eyes coaxed.

The sun was touching down when they finally left the market, the beautiful sakura-comb pinned in her pink hair, the hamper bag he carried bearing the additional load of a pretty bouquet of flower which one vendor had gifted them, and not forgetting the whole panoply of ingredients to make ramen for a pre-dinner meal, as he called it.

To be continued…

**AN**

- Before anyone jump at my throat about the sleeping arrangement, I personally know a few couples who opt for separate rooms when one of the spouse work odd shifts, most specifically, doctors and nurses. Doesn't mean that there is no intimacy when needed, lol, wink wink. So, to me at least, it's not as shocking as it may seem, XD.

- I had a few comments about excluding the kiss from the wedding. From what I have researched, _traditional_ Japanese weddings do not have a 'kiss' time. Wedding kisses has started to be popular only quite recently, among the new generation. Of course, my knowledge about any Japanese tradition is only from internet reading and I may be completely wrong, so I apologize if I had made some serious blunder.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:**

- The usual thanks to all of you who have reviewed. Things are hectic right now and I'm still trying to catch up on sending thanks notes and reviews replies – sorry for that. Even the updates are quite delayed.

**XXXXX**

…_**then the small hiccups started…**_

"He'll be fine now," Sakura said in a soothing and firm voice, steering the distraught young woman towards the door. "I'll keep him for another hour for a second healing session and you'll be able to take him home."

She looked at the young father who had not budged from the bed's side, his shoulders stiff, expression drawn and very worried, so touchingly vulnerable, as he looked down at the now sleeping, black haired three years old little boy.

Sakura had long lost hope that she would ever see _that_ sort of expression so openly on this face one day, something to prove loudly and unequivocally what Naruto already knew and never gave up on, when everybody else, including herself, had turned away; something which had always been there but had been momentarily smothered by darkness and hidden behind a tight, shuttered shell: that he was, despite everything, still human. She could not help the small warm smile creeping up her lips.

"Come, Sasuke," she insisted in a low voice. "He's sleeping now."

Many hard sceptics would have sneered that he was only concerned about his clan resurrection, nothing more; but what Sakura had seen in those anguished eyes was nothing to do with clan. It had everything to do with the little boy as an individual. His son.

"Maybe I should stay…?" started Uchiha Suki, the pretty black haired, grey eyed wife of Sasuke.

Sakura shook her head resolutely. "Your staying here won't change anything. The medications will keep him asleep for now."

"Where is he?" a concerned, distinctive male voice was heard and in a flurry of maroon robes, the Hokage appeared at the door. "Sakura-chan, I just heard that Koichi-chan _" he stopped in mid sentence and scanned her form with a horrified expression. "It's that bad?" He choked out, pointing at her coat.

Sakura's mouth was opened, about to admonish him to keep his voice down but stopped at his horrified face and looked down to where he was pointing. To see her doctor-coat splattered with blood; lot of blood.

"Oh. No! No, this is not Koichi's," she quickly assured the appalled blond. "I had just finished with an operation when they came in."

Naruto sighed in relief. "How is he?" he asked, lowering his voice, having spotted the sleeping little boy within the room. He breathed hard at the sight of intravenous drip sticking in the small, fragile arm.

"He'll be fine," Sakura repeated again. "Suki-san, Sasuke, let's go," she re-iterated to the lingering parents. "We'll come back in an hour for the second healing. Ami will keep a look on him." She pointed to her assistant, a capable med-nin who was arranging the drip stand closer to the bed. Sasuke reluctantly moved and Sakura herded the small group away from the room.

"What happened?" Naruto asked in an undertone as they walked through the corridor into the wide entrance hall.

"Acute bronchiolite," Sakura replied quietly. Looking at his blank expression, she simplified, "Severely congested chest due to a viral infection and difficulty to breathe." Not wanting to distress the Uchiha couple further, she did not say that it could have been fatal, especially in view of Koichi's tender age.

That morning, the two Uchihas had arrived at the hospital, frantic, Sasuke carrying his almost passed-out son in his arms. The three year old toddler had been in an apnetic condition, wheezing horribly and with a high fever. When Sakura had immediately scanned him for a first diagnostic, she had found a quite advanced stage of lung infection. Upon questioning of the parents, she learnt that little Koichi had been harboring a cold since a few days and he started having some slight breathing difficulty during the night, which suddenly went worse in the morning hours.

Not losing another second, Sakura had rushed the little boy to the treatment room and a full two hours of intricate treatment followed, where she removed the fluids which had accumulated in the lungs, curing away the infected bronchioles and dilating the alveoli so that the little boy would breathe easily. The treatment had taken longer than it would normally have, in view to Koichi's age.

The two parents had silently watched the procedure throughout, both so visibly anguished, though Sasuke had tried to, unsuccessfully though, hide behind a closed facade. They both still looked shaken, seeing their pale faces, even if the danger was over and Koichi was now completely healed.

Now, giving them a reassuring smile as they all stood in the hall where medics, nurses and patients buzzed about, Sakura said, "Let's go have something to eat at the tea-house across the street in the meantime. You've been here since morning."

It was past lunch time and most probably the two parents had left without any breakfast in the morning. Sakura herself needed a break. The two hour's emergency operation immediately followed by the two hours intricate treatment on Koichi were taking its toll on her; she needed a short rest and some food before restarting.

Sasuke opened his mouth, his now brooding expression indicating a most probable forthcoming refusal, but Naruto firmly forestalled him and pulled him towards the exit. "Sakura-chan is right. You both look like you really need a bite." He pointedly indicated the pale, drawn face of Suki. "If Sakura says Koichi-chan will be all right, then it means he will be all right. A short meal break won't change anything."

Sasuke sighed and wordlessly followed him.

"Please give me a minute," Sakura requested the three as she saw the group of medic-nins awaiting her in the front office.

She had to assign the group their work load for the rest of the day. The medic-nins all snapped to immediate attention, respect and compliance evident, as the head stopped by them and proceeded to issue some rapid, precise instructions.

"Yes, Sakura-sama," was a chorused reply as she finished with her directives and they all dispersed for their allocated duties.

Sakura made another swift stop by the front nurse station and rapidly issued another sets of instructions to the nurses on duty. "I'll be at the tea house," she informed the head nurse when she had finished. "You'll know where to find me if needed."

"Yes, Sakura-sama," the head nurse replied.

The pink haired remembered her bloodied coat; quickly shrugging it off, she handed it to one of the nurses. "Could you please see to this," she asked and the nurse quickly nodded, taking the garment.

"The impeccable head medic," Naruto commented teasingly as she hurried to their side. She carried the role of the hospital leader so well, it was so fitted for her, that it felt she had always been intended for this aim. He felt the usual rush of pride at her achievement. Sakura only rolled her eyes at him and led the way.

The tea house in question was a small structure made of wood and bamboo, serving tea and typical tea accompaniment snacks. It could be said that it operated as the in-official hospital cafeteria, where the hospital staff usually hung about during their breaks. A full meal somewhere else would have been better, but seeing that they had only one hour, and Sakura doubted that the two Uchihas would be able to stomach a heavy lunch anyway, the snacks served here would have to do.

They all stooped at the low entranceway to get in and found themselves in a simple room with limited decorations, a simple flower arrangement at the side and a hanging scroll on the wall, tatami mats on the floor and low tables which could accommodate up to six people per unit. The establishment leaned more towards practicability rather than ceremonial, what with having to serve a hurried clientele made mostly of medics.

Sakura liked coming here in the rare cases where she had time for short breaks from her work; the snacks were delicious and the modest and quiet place seemingly far away from her medic duty concerns. A wonderful aroma of tea and warm snacks floated in the air, adding to the warmth and welcome of the place, a refreshing breather from the antiseptic smell that was typical of the hospital atmosphere. The owner himself, a small, smiling man, immediately came forward to welcome the group and directed them to a low table, losing no time in taking their orders.

"I never knew that a simple cold would have turned so serious," Uchiha Suki sighed a short while later. Their order, a large platter of steamed rice buns with varying sweet and salty filling and a large pot of piping hot tea had been promptly delivered to their table and Sakura proceeded to poor the tea in the four blue porcelain cups as they started to eat.

"I warned you not to go to the park the other day with those clouds looming," the Uchiha woman scolded her husband, grey eyes reproachful. "They were both drenched by the time they return home," she explained to Naruto and Sakura.

To the astonishment and bemusement of two, Sasuke looked crestfallen and properly chastised.

"I'm glad I put my foot down concerning Akira," Suki shivered. Akira was their one-year old younger son, who, as Suki had told Sakura earlier, was being watched by her parents during this crisis.

"Kids are more vulnerable to respiratory infections, but they bounce back to health more easily than us," Sakura murmured, comforting. "And with this frequent rain, we've been having a virulent flu virus circulating around."

"Will this leave any remaining lasting after-effects on Koichi?" Sasuke asked Sakura quietly.

Sakura shook her head. "He'll be completely fine after a couple of days. I've healed the infected bronchioles; the second healing is just for a precautionary measure."

Naruto observed Sasuke closely. He seemed deeply troubled, more troubled than a simple viral infection, as Sakura's claim, should have caused. "What is it?" The blond asked the Uchiha quietly. "You still look worried." Black eyes slid at him, visibly surprised at his astuteness.

Sakura looked at both men then at Sasuke, and now that Naruto had mentioned it, it was true. At a first glance, Sasuke looked his aloof usual self; but a closer look showed that he still did not look fully relieved, despite her several assurances that Koichi would be okay. Even Suki was eyeing her husband in surprise.

Only Naruto had been able to notice his unrest. But then, when it came to an Uchiha Sasuke, one Uzumaki Naruto had always been able to look underneath the underneath.

The Uchiha remained silent a while before quietly saying, "Itachi died from a lung disease."

Suki gasped audibly while Naruto and Sakura stared at him, shocked. He had never given much detail about Itachi and their last encounter, and knowing that it was a closet better left unopened, Naruto had never pushed him into talking about it.

Sakura frowned, immediately understanding the Uchiha's concern. "Koichi's lungs are healthy and normal, " she assured him. "I can confirm that he doesn't have any congenital defect; at least, it has not manifested until now. This is a viral infection which has propagated and degenerated into such an extreme situation." Seeing the still disturbed faces of the two parents, she said, "But, to be sure, bring him back in a week; I'll make some further tests. In fact, bring Akira too. It won't hurt to test him as well if there is any risk of genetical issues."

Her eyes were strong and resolved as she look at the couple and said in a confident and affirmative tone, "Don't worry; our knowledge and know-how about medicine had progressed enough that we will be able to counter any problem in that direction, if ever it arises."

Naruto looked at her proudly. She was being modest, because it was _her_ knowledge and _her_ know-how in the medical field had had increased beyond bounds, and judging by the look Sasuke was giving Sakura, he was well aware about it too.

"You can be assured that Sakura-chan will do everything that will need to be done," he told the distressed Suki.

"Thank you so much, Sakura-san," Suki said tremulously. Sasuke did not say anything, but the silent bow of his head to her was eloquent enough to both Sakura and Naruto.

Sakura shook her head. "Please don't thank me. I'm only doing my job. It's my mission and obligation not to let anyone suffer from anything medically curable while under my treatment."

Certainly not the children of third member of team seven, for who they had spent so much of their life bringing back, both Sakura and Naruto thought.

Naruto waved his hand briskly. "Now, enough with the gloomy faces. Eat up!" He gave the quiet male Uchiha a hard stare. "And the position of Konoha Military Police Force is still open," he said out of nowhere. "I'm still waiting for the day when you would accept it."

It seemed almost predestined, Naruto had always thought; the Second Hokage gave the Uchiha control of the Konoha Military Police Force as a sign of trust following Madara's betrayal, and he, the Rokudaime, want to do the same for his friend.

Whatever others might say, without Sasuke's help, Madara would not have been brought down and the war would not have been won by the alliance. Naruto did not believe in the crap that Madara had sprouted about Uchiha being tainted blood and would always bask in hatred. Since his tender age, the blond had always hated such type prejudices of 'inescapable fate'. His strong belief, as he had told Neji during the Chunin exams, was that one made his own destiny, and Sasuke had proven him right when he had given his all and helped Naruto to defeat Madara in the end, going against the crazy older Uchiha's firm belief that Sasuke was only following his fate by carrying all the Uchihas' hatred within him.

"And as I've told you before, this is _not_ a pity offer or an eyewash to keep the Uchiha in check and out of Konoha's governing affairs. We really _need_ you," Naruto said quietly.

He then narrowed his eyes at his friend. "And rest assured; I'm not worried about any future coup-d'état that you or your kids would be planning on us. I and my future kids will be fully prepared to kick your and your kids' asses in the case it happens. You know I have the strength do it, so, be warned."

Sasuke sent him sideways glare, still silent. Suki hid a chuckle behind her hand, the first smile since that morning.

"No offence to you, Suki-san," Naruto immediately turned to the Uchiha woman and grinned winningly. "With you in the Uchiha family I'm sure it will not come to it." She and Naruto had always gotten along quite well and he knew the down to earth, strong woman could pull her weight whenever needed.

On her side, Sakura had to fight a strange burning feeling slicking down her gut at the words of "future kids." With whom exactly was Naruto planning these future kids? she thought, completely unaware of the scowl that had crept on her face at the image of some unknown woman mothering the kids of Naruto.

"Is everything okay?" the quiet voice of Suki broke into her silent ruminating, while in the background, Naruto continued to cheekily harass Sasuke.

Sakura gave herself a quick mental shake and smiled at the Uchiha woman. "Oh, yes, fine. I'm just planning my work ahead," Sakura improvised quickly and joined in the conversation, pushing the strange burning and disturbing thoughts aside.

**XXXXX**

Naruto hurried towards the laundry room, late already, the basket full of his dirty clothes heavy enough to indicate that he had delayed his laundry by some days at least.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan. I'll join you shortly," he called out as he neared the kitchen, glimpsing her busying with a pan on the fire as he reached the door. Something smelled good and he paused, sniffing the air appreciatively. It was Akemi's day off; usually the housekeeper took Sundays off but she had requested for a week-day off this time, and from what he saw, Sakura was apparently cooking breakfast. Not that he had expected her to cook anything; he would have been fine eating an easy breakfast of cereal and fruit, same as her.

"Sakura-chan, you didn't need to," he said, standing at the doorway.

She turned her head to look at him and waved him off. "It's all right. I barely cook as it is, and I have a light schedule for this morning. Our inflow of the flu cases is tapering out and we don't have any emergencies. I can afford to have one hour delay."

Talking about flu, Naruto's thought went to Koichi and Akira, Sasuke's sons. He was deeply relieved that the tests Sakura had carried out a week earlier on both children had proven to be negative for any congenital lung issue; though from what she told him, she had asked Suki to bring both of them for a regular, bi-monthly follow-up, just in case.

He sniffed the air again. "Whatever it is, it smells good."

"It's nothing fancy, just steamed rice, miso soup and tamagoyaki (rolled omelette)." Eyeing his laundry load, she urged, "Hurry up, it will ready soon."

Her cheek was smudged with what he assumed was miso paste, judging from what she had listed in the menu. It was nice to see something as mundane and domesticated as a miso smudge on her for a change, rather than blood and gore that was her usual case at the hospital. She had already reverted to her cooking but he still lingered on the doorway, the refreshing picture she made as she busied herself at the stove, in _their_ kitchen, was so alluring that he could not help stalling a moment longer, enjoying the sight. She looked as at ease and in her element here as she was as the capable head medic nin at the hospital, he thought.

Deciding he should better stop ogling at her before she caught him in the act, he deposited his basket on the floor and moved. That miso smudge was tantalising him.

She was startled by his sudden appearance by her side. "What?" Her eyebrows shot up at his stare.

"You have a smudge of miso on your cheek," he said and before she could react, he raised his hand and trailed a slender, tanned forefinger on her soft, silky cheek to wipe said smudge.

She stared at him, momentarily wordless, while he casually looked for something to clean his finger with. He could not immediately find anything handy. Once upon a time, he would have simply wipe it on his own clothes; but he had to refrain from doing it now seeing that he was already dressed for office, and he was the Hokage, he could not afford to be sloppy. Shrugging and as if nothing, under the widening, green stare, he put the forefinger in his mouth and licked the digit clean.

Wooden spoon suspended in air, Sakura felt stunned and simply gaped at him, still lacking words.

Naruto raised a quizzical eyebrow at her wide stare.

"Get on with your laundry," she simply said finally, turning back to her pan to hide her warming face and missing the mischievous glint in his eyes.

It had seemed so simple for him, she thought. As always. An impulsive, practical and simple solution to an easy problem.

But she could not say the same for her. The sight of him licking the finger that had just brushed her cheek had felt so _intimate. _She still felt the trace of the shiver that had ran down her back as he did it and her cheeks suddenly felt warmer. She was glad that he had already walked away.

Grinning, Naruto picked up his basket and resumed his way to the laundry closet. It was unbelievable at how he could get under her skin now, and he enjoyed that small, minute power. But better not abuse on that power, not that it resulted in her bolting away; there was some boundary that he had better watched for carefully.

Balancing the container on his hip, he opened the door. He calculated that the washing should be done by the time he finished breakfast, so he would be able to put them in the dryer before he left for work. A basket full of what seemed to be freshly washed and dried laundry – obviously Sakura's – stood in within the small closet. Lifting it out of the way - she must have recently unloaded the machine - he gave a cursory glance at her things and was about to turn back to his own set when he paused.

A tiny bit of a very unusual color peeking from the jumbled mass of her clothes caught in his eyes. A peek of bright lemon yellow, looking very conspicuous, very atypical, like a roaring flag, among the usual white, pink, red, black, navy and grey that were the colors she habitually wore.

Naruto scrunched his face in concentration, trying to think of all her clothing. As far as he knew, the past two months they had been married, he had never seen her wearing anything of _that_ color. Not even her nightwear because he had always seen her in the comfortable greys and blacks and whites warming sweats she had been wearing due to the chilling night. This bright yellow garment piqued his curiosity. The color was so unusual, so warm, summer type; he would have definitely remembered it. Was it an exotic dress he had missed?

Not pausing to think, he plunged his hand in the pile and grabbed the small bit of peeking yellow and pulled.

And stared blankly at the tiny piece of garment that came out instead of the bigger clothing he had been fully expecting.

It took him three full seconds to realize what exactly he was holding in his hand. He almost dropped the thing in surprise. His eyes almost popping out of their sockets and his jaw hanging low, he stared at the utterly small and fragile piece of clothing that he had pulled out.

He held hanging between his suddenly shaky fingers, a scanty - in an almost see-through silky material and with lace at the edges- _panty._

Of a most unexpected and unusual _lemon yellow_ color.

Limited as was in knowledge in such things, he had never imagined that they came in _such_ colors.

Almost of its own accord, his second hand came up and he held up the cloth properly by each ends, getting a full, better view of the garment. _What does such a tiny scrap of fabric manage to cover,_ he thought, stupefied, his eyes huge with an uncontrollable male fascination as he stared at the sexy, feminine thing.

_Pervert,_ the word screamed in his mind, as he realized that he was ogling, with almost a nose bleed, at a feminine _underwear_. This was so like Jiraiya that for a moment, Naruto was horrified to think that he had finally turned out to be like his passed away master, the one who he had always accused of being a big pervert.

But it was not as if he was _peeking_ at girls as the former toad Sannin had made it a habit to do, nor that he made it a habit of rummaging through women's laundry to look for their underwear, the blond desperately reassured himself. Heck, it was only because on his co-habitation situation that he had come across a female laundry basket. And it was not as if this was for any random female. This was Sakura's.

_Sakura's._

He gulped audibly, suddenly fully grasping the enormity of his finding. Sakura wore _this_. His imagination tried to fit this…this _minute_ thing on Sakura and he almost got a heart seizure. He felt blood rushing through his head, and his breathing jammed in his throat …..He felt more like a hormone-raging horny teenager than the twenty-five years old adult that he was as he started and stared at the thing, his imagination running hundred miles per hour.

"Naruto?" Sakura's call snapped him from his stupor and he blanched.

If she even got wind of what he was been doing, it would be the end of him; this type of thing was what would guarantee him a painful punch through the walls across Konoha. No excuse would get him out of this fix. Too panicked to think properly and reacting on instincts only, he hastily jammed the garment in his pocket and jumped to his own basket, bending over his laundry to hide his face. Just in time, too, as the soft sound of her steps reached the doorway.

"Yeah!" he replied back; voice too unsteady, he immediately chided himself.

He proceeded to make a thorough job of transferring the dirty clothes into the machine, ensuring that his crimson face was hidden from her when she looked in the room.

"You're taking long," she stated.

"I'm almost done," he mumbled, not turning away from his task.

She noticed her own basket. "Oh, I'll take my lot to my room." Picking the load, she balanced it on her hip while she hovered over him.

Naruto froze. Now he was trapped - how would he return_ it_? Things were getting more complicated now that he would have to find a way to sneak it back to her without her noticing anything.

"And hurry up, the food will get cold!"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second," he replied and she turned to leave.

Cautiously, he turned to look around, and could not help but stare at her departing back as she walked away. His mind tried to conjured images of that piece of…_tiny_ scrap of garment on her, and he promptly felt his heart about to boom again.

Naruto had his fair share of lusty fantasy moments - he was a healthy grown male with normal needs, after all – and since as far as he remembered, Sakura had been the one in his fantasies. But he realized that fantasies and imagination was one thing, but now to actually know what she wore under all that demure clothing she usually donned was another thing completely. From then on, he would surely always think of…lemon yellow.

"Are you all right?" Sakura asked a short while later as they sat through breakfast.

She was looking at him in concern. The first unusual thing was that he was quiet; most quiet than he had ever been during breakfast since their two months of living together. And his complexion was changing too drastically for her liking, sometimes paling, sometimes having a red, almost feverish tinge.

She reached out and touched his forehead. "Are you coming out with a fever or what?"

"Oh no, I'm fine, Sakura-chan!" he almost stuttered. "It's just, uh, a queasy stomach."

"Oh. The food is not good?" she asked anxiously.

"No, No! No, of course it's delicious, Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed hurriedly and groaned inwardly. _Not the best excuse to have come up with,_ he chided himself. In fact, he guiltily realized that he had been eating almost blankly, not taking the attention to appreciate the food.

He took a deep, slow breath, forcing himself to snap out of this juvenile reaction, and to stop stealing looks at her lower body region when she was not watching.

"I'm fine, really," he told her again, pulling a grin to his face and set out to duly appreciate the food she had prepared.

Later in the office, his fingers met the soft, silky garment in his pocket. He felt an even bigger pervert now as he carried _it_ in his pocket. Like a fetish. He felt his cheeks warming up. But it was not as if he had much choice, anyway, he tried to console himself. It had been impossible to slip it in her room that morning while she was still about. He would have to do it during her absence.

Meanwhile, this thing had got him immersed in crazy, wonderful fantasies. Feeling like a hang-worthy criminal, he looked around quickly, checking that his door was properly locked and removed the garment from his pocket, admiring the delicate, utterly fascinating thing once more.

He still had difficulty in pinning his wandering thoughts a while later as he sat with part of his team for the weekly meeting on security. It was a good thing for him that there was nothing much to report, and only part of his team was there, Sai, his chief secret ops, Neiji, his chief of defense security and Shikamaru - Kakashi, his advisor, was absent on that day - making it more of an informal meeting, otherwise he would have been in trouble.

They had almost finished when they were joined by Kiba. The Inuzuka had come to submit his mission report and wanted a discussion with the Hokage about importing an endemic mineral from the Rock Country. Said mineral, in powdered form, had the virtue of efficiently curing canine fleas' infestation and enhancing fur health, and seeing that the Inuzuka clan had the largest pack of canines in Konoha, he wanted to be able to import the mineral in a regular capacity from the Rock Country.

Feeling that the others' opinion would help, Naruto had asked them to stay. Barely fifteen minutes through the discussion, though, Naruto felt incapable of giving his full attention to what was being said, tried as he might.

"What do you say, Naruto?" Shikamaru asked and Naruto jumped, having no clue what he was being asked about.

"What?"

Shikamaru gave an exasperated sigh. He, same as the others, had noticed that the Rokudaime had been particularly distracted since they had started.

"The treaty. I said, the best way to arrange for the mineral trade from Rock Country would be via the already existing trade treaty."

"Yes. Yes, the panty would be the best way."

A screaming silence followed.

"Umm… ahh…did I say …panty?" Naruto stuttered, chuckling nervously.

"Yes, you did," Neji replied, deadpan.

"I meant treaty. _Treaty_. Slip of tong. Sorry, let's continue."

"Man, that was quite a slip," Kiba snickered.

Naruto glared at the Inuzuka. "Let's get on with the discussion," he gritted.

Another silence followed, as the others tried to refocus on the topic that had been discussed.

Then, "It's all right to be interested in one's wife's panty," Sai said calmly, matter of fact, as if discussing about the weather.

"SAI!" the Rokudaime spluttered. "That's not…I was not…_Can we get back to the discussion_?"

Another blank silence followed.

"Did you know that they have them in yellow colour now?" Naruto finally blurted out. "_Lemon yellow_!"

"And there's this fabulous hot pink one!" Kiba immediately replied, enthusiast, "With black frills at the edges. It's from the 'Secrets', the lingerie shop that had recently been opened. They have the hottest collection ever!"

Sai nodded. "They are good. I like the one with monochrome abstract prints. White background, black prints. It's nice."

Shikamaru sighed. _Troublesome._ In his case, these days he had to do with comfortable one rather than seductive one, but they were still sexy, he thought. "Their red collection is hot," he said. "Especially the one with the lace in it."

Four pairs of eyes turned to the one who had still not put an input.

"Well, I prefer the plain black. No trims," Neiji stated calmly.

**XXXXX**

A week later, on a heavily rainy afternoon, Naruto and Sakura sat at the kitchen table, both sipping a cup of hot tea, while Akemi, their housekeeper, cheerfully bustled about, preparing dinner. The weather a definite must for being inside one's home's warmth, the thick, dense raindrops clattering against the wide glass bay, creating a nice pitter-patter sound. Both of them had finished work early and had rushed back home.

"I would love a lemon slice in my tea," Sakura suddenly announced and Naruto froze.

Lemon. Yellow. He groaned inwardly. Would he always be haunted by yellow lemons now? He thought, tortured.

Fortunately for him, the very afternoon of the laundry incident, he came home earlier than her and had managed to sneak in her room, almost regretfully putting the garment back in the laundry basket which she still had not sorted out, to his great relief. Easy and done.

But it seemed that yellow lemon would always evoke hot images in his mind now.

Sakura was already standing up and going to the kitchen counter to take a pulpy, yellow lemon from the fruit basket. She had changed from her work clothes earlier and now had a knee length grey tunic style sweater worn over black leggings, and Naruto found his eyes irresistibly drawn to her lower back, following her movements as she moved about and finally stood still to slice the fruit. He was playing with fire, he knew; she just had to turn around and he would be caught. But his eyes simply could not follow the alarm signals that his brain was trying to give them.

Most probably under normal circumstances, he would never have noticed anything, but since his perusal was quite intense, he suddenly squinted his eyes in concern.

"Sakura-chan!" He was immediately by her side, anxious. "You are hurt!"

"What?"

"Your back…you have blood!"

Sakura immediately twisted her neck around to have a look; and stilled, mortified. "Umm…no, I'm not hurt. I'll be right back." She practically ran away from the room, leaving him perplexed at her lack of concern.

"Not hurt? But you're bleeding!" he called out, worried, but she was already gone.

He immediately made a move to follow her when Akemi dry voice stopped him.

"Hokage-sama, she's not hurt. It's just the monthly womanly thing." The middle aged woman rolled her eyes at his obliviousness.

"Er?" Blank look then cleared and comprehension settled. "Oh…" Naruto scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

Yes, he had been told about birds and bees and womanly monthly thing by Jiraiya, long, long years ago. It did not mean that he was used to it or would recognize it, having never been exposed to such incident or discussed it with a female before.

Sakura felt highly embarrassed as she hurried towards her room, which was ridiculous. They were adults; very much grown up adults and best friends and she was a medic-nin, for crying out loud; such types of thing should not be embarrassing for her. Still, it was.

She sighed. It was a setback of sharing living space with another person - the lost of some of the privacy, despite all the efforts they might do. Such type of things would have been bound to happen in the next couple of years that they would live together, she consoled herself.

When she returned back to the kitchen a short while later, Akemi was nowhere in sight, most probably busy doing something else in the house while the food stewed slowly on the stove. An awkward silence reigned as she took her seat.

"Does it hurt?" Naruto broke the silence, pure male curiosity on his face and Sakura cringed, having expecting something in this direction from him. He was Naruto, after all. Curious and oblivious still formed a huge part of his character. And having had no feminine presence in his life, his curiosity was to be expected.

She shook her embarrassment away and adopted an adult, doctor stance. "Well, there are the cramps in the lower tummy region, ranging from mild to acute." She tried to reply as best and simply as she could to his incoming questions.

"That's a lot of hassle for you girls to go through," he said finally.

"Well, it's necessary for babies making," she chuckled dryly without thinking. Then she froze, and immediately berated herself mentally. Of all the things to say, why should she have said _this_.

She chanced a glance at him and met cloudy blue eyes.

"Ah, I mean… you know…the technicalities of it…without it there could not be…" She floundered to a halt, squirming in her seat as she buried herself further in her flustered hole.

"Er, yeah…" His voice was gruff and for once, he too seemed to run out of words. Already his mind had been sizzling with lemon yellow, and now…

Another electric silence followed.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been all right to discuss about all this; her being a medic-nin and they being close friends and so on.

But suddenly, their differences were so tangible. She – female, him - male.

And sitting in the cozy kitchen while it rained heavily outside, with the room feeling suddenly hot and crackling and both of them carrying a pink patch on their cheeks, was not the ideal setting to be discussing about the complicated and admittedly fascinating science of how babies were made. It made one's imagination run wild.

"Want to have a game of cards?" She asked brightly and he quickly agreed.

_**To be continued…**_


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks once more for the amazing response and support.

…_**and the awareness increased…**_

**XXXXX**

Autumn slowly faded away to the approaching winter, the days getting shorter, colder, and blearier. On a Monday morning of the first week of winter, Sakura groggily cracked an eye open to her still dark bedroom. Squinting at the small clock on her bedside table, she groaned and hurriedly pushed the blankets off her. She had overslept and she was going to be late for work! She had an important staff meeting scheduled first thing in the morning and it won't do that the Head herself was late.

The previous night, she and Naruto had been to her parents' house for dinner, a fortnightly thing they made a must to do. It had been late by the time they had managed to leave, what with her parents usual pampering and fussing over both of them, thus her oversleeping this morning.

She shivered as she swung her feet off the bed, the chilly draft of the room biting into her skin despite the heater. Still feeling drowsy with sleep, she made an attempt to rush, jamming her foot in her fluffy slippers, shrugging into a thick fleece robe and collecting the clothes she would need to change into for work, and almost stumbled out of her room. A quick shower would surely wake her up, was her sleepy-hazed thought as pushed the bathroom door open, only to stop abruptly.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Naruto?"

They both talked at the same time.

"Am I too early for my turn?" Naruto frowned. Hair tousled, blue eyes looking as sleepy as hers, clad in only in orange boxers, he looked questioningly at her while straightening from his previously bent posture over the sink, face drenching wet – he had been washing his face.

Sakura was too busy staring at the vast amount of tanned skin exposed and subtle play of the muscles as he had straightened up and she did not reply immediately. Then realizing that she should say something, not just stand there like an idiot, gawping at him, she responded, "No, no I overslept and I'm the one who's late."

The arrangement for the morning use of the bathroom was she got the first hour, as she was always the one up earlier of the two, and up till now, it had worked perfectly well. The fleeting thought that she should be berating him for not locking the door crossed her mind but she felt too strangely whacked to do so, and had been any other time of the day, she would have knocked by precaution, but she had been too sleepy to think properly. But now, her sleepiness had disappeared; she was suddenly buzzing awake. She slowly started to back away, tightening her grip on the clothes she held in her hands least that her suddenly nerveless fingers released them.

"Hey, it's all right, stay here, I can use the guest bathroom," Naruto immediately proposed, his bare feet noiseless as he stepped towards her, more smooth bareness under her perusal now.

A tiny drop of water flowed from his chin to his neck and mesmerized, her eyes was already following it's trail down to his throat and onto his chest before she realized what she was doing and jerked her attention back to his face.

"It's okay, _I'll_ use the guest one," she countered. It was the first time in their three months marriage that their schedule had slipped and it was her own fault, so it was only fair that she get to use the much smaller and less equipped guest bathroom downstairs.

Naruto raised his hand to push a few rebellious blond bangs away from his eyes and her gaze was directed at his shoulders and biceps, muscles rippling smoothly under the skin and a breath silently caught in her throat.

"No, I'll_," he started.

"No, I'll go," she insisted, cutting him off, because she suddenly felt that she should insist, she should say anything, and it should be something that did not sound too nonsensical, as she tried to get her suddenly fuzzy mind to work coherently.

Her overrated reaction to his scantily clad form was quite unexpected to her. It was certainly not the first time that she had seen Naruto so sparsely clothed. She had occasionally seen him in equally little clothing since as early as their Genin days; during training, during major treatments.

But as her eyes, as though having a will by themselves, skimmed over the wide but not too overly wide shoulders, the powerful but still slender enough chest, the hard packed but not too showy abdomen, down to the flat, taut stomach, all enrobed in the wonderful, smooth tanned skin of his, she thought, again as she had been doing the past years she had seen him grown, that he was no more a lanky boy of their childhood days.

And this was neither an open aired training ground, nor a cold clinical hospital where hundreds of people bustled closely about.

But most importantly, she was no teenager now, no insouciant, oblivious girl. She was a woman, and although she had never really realized it until the past three months of their living together, her awareness of her best, idiot of a friend _as a man_ had been getting much deeper, and judging from the way her heartbeat had speeded up and the soft hair at her nape seemed to stand straight - her reactions that much stronger.

Unbidden, her eyes continued their journey down and she suddenly froze. A warm heat flushed through face and she jerked her eyes up, to be arrested by dark blue.

Mumbling something unintelligible and giving him no time to reply, Sakura almost fled.

"Huh?" Naruto looked bewildered at her hurriedly departing back. He lowered his eyes to where her gaze had been last directed and saw a telltale tent there.

_Oh…_He scratched his head. His boxers was an old one, very much worn weary and quite a tight fit, not helping in the matter here at all. Was he supposed to apologize about it? But this was morning wood, and it was beyond his control! He shrugged to himself, confused; but he had to admit that he liked her flustered reaction and a slow, smug grin tugged at his lips.

Now that he was properly awake, looking back, he realized that she had been acting quite peculiar, so unlike herself. Had she been…_checking him_ out? He suddenly wondered, eyes widening, mind speculating, feeling suddenly very, very interested.

He decided to check his theory the very next day.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!" Naruto cheerfully greeted as he strode in the kitchen for breakfast the next morning.

Having just barely settled on her chair herself, Sakura turned her head to greet him back and did a double take, while Akemi, who had been laying the food on the table, immediately gasped in concern. "Hokage-sama, you will catch your death in this freezing temperature!"

Cool as he might, almost as if nothing, Naruto wore an old pair of fitted orange knee-length shorts which rested snugly low on his slim hips, and nothing else on top.

Sakura stared wordlessly at him, her eyes running an automatic swift scan of his form before she could stop herself.

"Nah, Akemi-san, I'm not cold," Naruto was waving the elderly house-keeper's concern off. "I was training for Sage-mode, and it's easier and quicker to gather natural energy with less clothing," he told the obviously lost civilian woman, who had no clue about ninja and Sage techniques.

Naruto was saying the truth, in a way. His start of the Sage mode training in Myōbokuzan had been obligatorily topless, though of course since then he had mastered the technique and did not need to be unclothed now. But he need not give this information to his audience. "I thought I was already too late for breakfast so I hurried here straight away," he added while Akemi mumbled about the youth of today who lacked concern for their health as she got back to her things.

Sakura had almost buried her face in her bowl of cereal. It was correct that Naruto had always seemed to be more immune to low temperatures than the rest of them; it must be the Kyuubi within him. But still, what the hell was he thinking, parading around topless like that, two days in a row now, she ruminated to herself. It was freaking winter and freezing cold, for God's sake!

Almost scowling, Sakura mentally cursed idiot Sage ninjas who needed to train bare-chested and be such, such… _troublesome _distractions. She was feeling so queer these days and not quite herself and she did not like the lack of reign over her own mind at all and she had a bad restless night full of disturbing dreams…She braked her mental ramblings and took a discreet calming breath.

Not looking anywhere else from her bowl, she concentrated on pouring milk in it, psyching herself not to look, even send her mind, towards the expanse of skin and muscles under display. It was just _Naruto_, she chided herself, her familiar, comfortable Naruto. She managed to get a grip on herself and was quite proud with her cool, collected composure, busying herself about preparing her cereal, not appearing affected at all by the sight.

Still standing, Naruto carefully spied on her at the corner of his eyes, noting how she was avoiding looking in his direction. Time to push up the pressure, he thought.

"Aaaah…." He gave a loud, contented sigh.

Wary, veiled green eyes rose almost furtively towards him.

"Nothing beats a good training first thing in the morning!" he enthused brightly and lazily stretched both arms high above his head, rotating his torso to and fro to pop some bones into place for good measure.

And caught the immediate pink tinge that appeared on her cheeks._ Bingo!_ He thought in triumph.

Padding silently to the table, he pulled a chair out.

"Akemi-san is right," Sakura suddenly snapped and making him pause as he was about to sit down. "It's too cold and now that you've done with your training, there's no need to freeze yourself to sickness." She refused to be subjected to more of…_this_… mind endurance. In her current state of mind, she could only tackle small doses of a topless Naruto; she did not have the mental stamina right now to go through the whole breakfast having to pretend to be indifferent and unaffected, she would surely end up making a fool of herself. "You'd better put something on before I have to drag your hypothermic self to the hospital."

"But the heater is on_" he started to protest but she narrowed her eyes threateningly. "All right, I'll be back in a second," he relented, hiding a smile of triumph as he left the room.

It was good to know that he was not the only one struggling with a massive physical awareness issue, he thought.

**XXXXXX**

"NO. No way!" Sakura said firmly and Naruto's face fell.

"But, Sakura-chaaan_"

"No!" She refused categorically.

This thing was hideous. She knew only _too_ well that some people could have a bizarre penchant for such unorthodox colours, but to actually wear something as screaming as this? No way. She had to almost shade her eyes, so bright was the pure orange suit that he was waving under her nose. And who in their right mind would have designed a _tuxedo_ in such a lurid colour? She proceeded to ask the salesman, who was anxiously hovering a few steps away, the question.

"This was custom made for a stage performer," the young man nervously replied, quite in awe that the Hokage and his wife were shopping at his shop.

Earlier, she had been in Naruto's office to submit and discuss about some reports, when he had informed her about an invitation for both of them to the opening ceremony of a bank, which was to be for the next day. The event was to be a formal evening affair, and Naruto had been invited as the guest of honor and expected to give a speech. Upon prodding, she had learnt that he did not have anything really appropriate as formal evening wear, and when she had urged him to get something, fast, he had requested her help in the matter.

It was a terribly busy day at the hospital and she could only spare an hour, thus, here they were, for a hurried, impromptu shopping spree, in a men's shop, browsing through the array of displayed formal suits, with Naruto excitedly waving this ridiculous suit.

"There's something called _too_ much of orange!" Sakura told the long-faced blond, quickly flipping through the stand of hanging suits and finally selecting one. "Here, try this one." It was black and beautifully cut.

"But black so boring," he complained and she rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Just try it on."

The fit was perfect; even Naruto had to grudgingly agree that it looked great when worn on and accepted to take it. The salesman immediately brought the matching pants in Naruto's size.

"And now the shirt," Sakura said as she walked to the shirt section.

"An orange one?" Naruto said hopefully, but she handed him a crisp white one, with a wide, pointed collar. After much haggling, the white shirt was added in their shopping pile.

The tie brought another argument, Sakura pushing for a cerulean blue one, in exactly the same shade as his eyes – though peculiarly, she did not tell him that – and Naruto, without surprise, doing a tantrum for a bright orange one.

Finally, Sakura thought of a solution. She had a quick, whispered discussion with the salesman, who immediately nodded and disappeared at the back of the shop, taking the blue tie away with. The salesman agreed with the Hokage's wife choice – the blue tie suited the Hokage more, and he was impressed that she had managed to find such a compromised solution to please his taste of orange as well. A while later, he returned with a slightly transformed blue tie: he had stitched a strip of orange silk ribbon near the base of the tie.

"Here, now you have your orange too," Sakura told the surprised Naruto. As he still looked a bit crestfallen, she said, not quite meeting his eyes, "I _like_ the blue."

He immediately put the blue tie on their shopping pile without any further complaints. A pair of black formal shoes later, they were out of the store and she hurried to work, having gone pass her one hour.

The next afternoon, Sakura stood in front of her wardrobe, biting her lips and grimacing as she looked at her own quite meagre selection of formal clothing. As the wife of the Hokage, she was expected to dress up for the occasion. She really needed to do some formal dress shopping herself, she thought, but she simply had not had the spare time, and right now it was too late to be thinking about it; she had to find something appropriate and she did not have much choice but to forage something from these.

The opening ceremony was due to start in less than one hour, _and if she did not hurry up and made a decision they would be late,_ she growled to herself, and grabbed the only dress she found to be most suitable. She unzipped the plastic cover to look critically at the dress in question.

She had worn it only once as bridesmaid for Ino's wedding; it was pale lilac in colour and in taffeta silk, very simple in style, sleeveless, heart-shaped neck, floor length with a straight, tight fit and a knee height slit on one side for ease of movement. It would have to do, she thought. It was more suited for a warmer temperature - Ino's wedding had been a spring one - so she would throw in a shawl for warmth, and she had one just appropriate for it, a pale golden, crocheted affair. She just hoped that the venue would be heated enough, otherwise she would freeze to death.

At least the dress was perfectly creaseless – she was too short of time to iron it. She had tried to free herself at an earlier time, but as usual, Murphy 's Law seemed to apply to her and just when she needed to be early home she had been retained by an emergency.

Thirty minutes later which included a quick shower, she was almost ready. She had opted to let her freshly washed hair loose, brushing it till it shine luxuriously and gathered a strand on one side and pinned with the sakura comb that Naruto had got for her. Her make up was sparse – a light dust of eye shadow that deepened the colour of her eyes and a shiny pink lip gloss on her lips. Now only remained for her to put on her dress and the high-heeled golden shoes and she would be done.

She carefully slipped into the dress and congratulated herself about not having gained any weight since two years she had last worn it; the dress was still a perfect fit as she slid the back zipper up. Then, second later, she gave a loud curse.

She was barely over halfway zipped-up when the zipper got jammed, and by the painful tug in her scalp, it was her hair which had got stuck the thing.

"Damn!" She muttered again, tugging at the zipper-puller, trying to catch a glimpse at what she was doing in the mirror by rotating her neck as far as possible, but to no avail. And she had been careful about pushing her curls out of the way, too, she thought in a mixture of dismay and annoyance.

She gave another jerk but it only pulled harder at her hair and she winced, at the same time now worried that she would end up tearing the fabric altogether. She growled in frustration; today was definitely her day of Murphy 's Law!

Thinking quickly, she concluded that she had not much choice, and a minute later, she knocked on Naruto's bedroom's door.

"Naruto?"

The door was immediately yanked open and Naruto looked down at her questioningly. "Sakura-chan?" He was in the white shirt and black slacks, the tie looped loosely around his neck. He looked at her properly and whistled. "Wow, Sakura-chan…you look great!" He looked up and down her form in open admiration and she felt her cheeks warming.

"I'm stuck," she said drily, and turned her back to him. "My hair got jammed in the zipper. Can you get it out please?" She told him over her shoulder. At least the thing had been jammed up to a decent height, just above her bra line, she thought, thankful for small mercies, thus, only her upper back that was exposed.

Naruto contemplated the partly exposed creamy shoulders and the smooth curve of the start of her spine encased in the pale lilac silk and swallowed. "Oh. Yes, sure."

He peered at the stuck zipper and saw that it was a rather thick strand of hair which had been thoroughly enmeshed in the metal teeth. He fumbled with the thing for a while, without success and his manipulation only pulled her hair harder and she gave a hiss of pain.

"Sorry," he immediately apologized. "Maybe I should sit down." As it was, he had to bend his back at an awkward angle to have a good view at what he was doing. Without waiting for her reply, he walked back inside his room and pulled a chair close to his dresser table's lamp.

"Just cut the bunch of hair if it's too difficult," she said, following him inside.

He sat on the chair and beckoned her closer. "No, I'll do it," he said stubbornly, the ever I'll-not-give-up man and she presented him with her back once again.

A strong, warm palm curved on her waist and pulled her back, closer to him, settling her in between his straddled knees and Sakura's mouth opened in a wide O of silent surprise.

Satisfied that he could now see better, his eyes being closer and at a better angle, Naruto released her waist. "Don't move," he ordered as she had reflexively started to wiggle around in surprise.

She stilled and his warm breath teased the skin of her exposed back as he shifted his head closer. She suddenly thought that it had been a very, very bad idea to come for his help; she should have just ripped the damn dress off and changed into…what? she thought, her sparse wardrobe flitting through her mind. _Anything,_ _sweatpants, a rag, anything_… she countered, her breath blocked into her throat as his knuckles knocked softly against her back as he struggled with the damn stuck zipper, the acute awareness of his touch reverberated electrifyingly up and down her spine.

She longed to be able to say something to break the silence but her mind had gone blank and all she could think was how close Naruto was, and most disturbing was that she could so acutely _feel_ him, she could even hear his slow breathing in the very quiet room but could not actually see him, making that all her other senses was on overdrive.

"Maybe you should just cut it off," she repeated finally into the empty air in front of her, needing to say something…anything.

"No, I'm almost done," he mumbled in her back. "There. Done."

He brushed the strand of pink, silky hair gently out of the way and he had a hard fight quelling the urge to bury his lips against that small expanse of silky skin. Carefully, almost regretfully, he drew the zipper up and tied the hook at the end.

For one moment, they both stayed still, unmoving, his hand resting lightly against her upper back.

Then Sakura moved a step forward. "I'll be done in a second," she managed, appalled at the huskiness of her voice and turning to look at him only when she was at the door frame. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "We'll be late."

Naruto stood up. "Yeah." His voice was equally husky and he nervously raked his fingers through his spiky hair. "I'm almost finished too."

The bank opening event was preceded by a simple ribbon-cutting ceremony at the entrance, conducted by Naruto with Sakura standing by his side and about one hundred guests in attendance, before all the attendees were ushered inside the brand new building for a formal reception. The huge, spacious entrance lobby had been turned into the function's venue; black, gleaming granite on the floor, the front façade completely in glass and high ceiling – the typical high-powered bank premise, which had been transformed for that evening by being bare of any furniture, and decorated with a multitude of soft lights and grand flower decorations.

Naruto had been whisked off by the host for the delivery of the opening speech as soon as they had set foot in, Sakura reassuring him that she would be all right at the apologetic look he had sent her over his shoulder.

The function was a standing and circulating thing, waiters with trays of drinks and finger food snaking their ways among the guests. The crowd comprised of politicians and business jet set of Konoha and from all over the Fire Country, not the usual crowd with which Sakura was used to. She listlessly circulated about, the brief speech being over and Naruto still retained, making polite conversations whenever appropriate, and it was a pleasure to see the familiar face walking her way.

"Tsunade-shishou!" Sakura greeted the former Godaime.

The older woman checked her former student up and down. "You're looking great, Sakura. And how's the married life?" She noticed a new light in the green eyes of her former student that had not been there before. It's been some weeks since they had met; she only worked at the hospital as a consultant capacity, so even though Sakura always find excuses to call for her, it was not often that they met.

"Going fine, Shishou," Sakura gave the usual reply.

"The brat looks real good, almost unrecognisable, in the suit," Tsunade remarked, smirking. "There's just something about a man in a suit, isn't there?

Following the older woman's gaze across the wide hall, through the crowds, Sakura could just glimpse Naruto and she wholeheartedly agree with the older woman. Naruto looked very distinguished, so very handsome in the beautifully cut black suit, the pristine white shirt a superb contrast against his tanned skin and the blue tie, as she had expected, bringing the blue of his eyes to prominence, the blond spiky hair falling freely over his forehead.

It was not the clothes but the man himself, though, who had been having a marked effect on her. The short walk from home to the venue had been quite testing, what with her senses still clamoring from earlier and her emotions all over the place. It had been hard to keep a neutral outward appearance and doing casual talk while being so _aware _of him, and she had been glad that it was only a short distance walk.

He was now talking to someone, and as she watched he threw back his head and laughed, and her stomach suddenly flipped, like being in a free fall in a rollercoaster. As if feeling her intense gaze on him, Naruto turned his head and green eyes met blue across the wide space.

Sakura dragged her eyes back to Tsunade to keep up with what she was saying.

"How long since you've married already? Three months?" Tsunade was asking.

"Three months two weeks," replied Sakura.

As they chatted some more, Sakura's eyes roamed around, watching the people milling about but it was as if an invisible, irresistible force was dragging them back to Naruto's face, where their gazes locked for a long moment before she managed to wrench hers away.

The evening progressed and Naruto was always taken, always in conversation with someone or other as everyone seemed to have something to discuss with the Rokudaime. And in spite of her best efforts, Sakura found her eyes often flickering back to him, with him always seeming to wait for her, their gazes lingering before one of them would have to look away.

Grabbing a fruit drink from a passing waiter, Sakura swirled her glass, staring down into the reddish liquid, but she was so acutely aware of a whiskered face, blond haired, blue eyed someone by that stage that she might as well have been staring straight at him. It was if those fleeting eye contacts had imprinted an unnervingly vivid image of him on her brain; of a Naruto of which she were becoming more and more intensely aware of as the weeks and months of their marriage progressed.

She swallowed. You weren't supposed to be gazing so into a man's eyes when you were just friends, she thought.

Platonic, housemates only, best friend…their marriage was turning out to be much more complicated than she had been anticipating; suddenly all boundaries seemed so blurred, the lines they had drawn seemed so fine now. What were they doing, where were they going…she had no clue at all.

She drank her fruit drink shakily, forcing a smile as she continued through the evening by circulating among the people, eating small canapés served by the waiters, all the while her mind perturbed, almost jarred, as if she had stumbled into the dark.

It was over an hour later that Naruto finally appeared by her side, smiling brightly into her eyes, and she was more than ready to call it a night.

"Tired, Sakura-chan?" he asked softly.

She nodded, smiling back, basking in the familiar warmth emanating from his person. "Yes. Can we go home now?" The crowd had been thinning out already.

He did not need to be told twice and went to take his leave from their host.

Things were definitely changing, Sakura thought as they walked back home, quite tired and this time, unlike earlier, a cozy comfort settling between them as they commented on the evening and the guests.

**XXXXX**

"I'm so ready for this little one to arrive," Ino sighed for the umpteenth time, two weeks later, as she carefully swung her feet off the exam table, her hand settled on her seven and a half months pregnant belly.

Sakura chuckled. "Only four weeks to go, Pig."

The young Nara woman was cranky and had been bitching about everything since she came in for her prenatal check-up.

"Four weeks still seems so far away," the blond complained. "I feel like a whale. My hair feel so greasy and lousy, my skin is always blotchy. This belly is getting in the way of everything and I have to pee each minute. Can you see that I am walking like a duck now?"

Sakura rolled her eyes at her friend's incessant grumbling and helped her to a chair. "Ino pig, you are as gorgeous as ever; you know it so stop complaining." It was true; pregnancy was very agreeable to Ino. She was the perfect picture of a radiant young pregnant woman, her face glowing with health and vitality.

"I feel as good as an ugly duck!"

"I'm sure Shika does not feel this way," teased Sakura, sitting down at the small table of the room and quickly jotting some comments on Ino's health report. Said man had not been able to accompany his wife this time, as he had been doing for all the appointments, having been retained in an urgent meeting.

"Well, he is not getting much of _it_ these days, so I can't say. I'm so uncomfortable and exhausted, my back aches and I can't even have a comfortable sleeping position. It won't be surprising for him to find me ugly..." Ino voice trailed miserably away.

Sakura looked at the dejected face and immediately stood up and came around to give her friend a comforting hug. "Ino, you _know_ that Shika adores you," she said firmly. "A few weeks of abstinence won't change his love for you!"

"Easy for you to say," Ino sulked as Sakura straightened. "I'm sure you and Naruto are always at it; in all positions!"

Sakura turned pink at her friend's usual crude way of talking. "Ino!" Her words were creating images in her mind…images which were too much for her to handle.

"What? Come on, tell! He surely _must_ be well endowed, isn't he?"

"_Pig!_" Inevitably, Sakura's mind went to what she had glimpsed, albeit clothed, the morning she had walked into Naruto in the bathroom and she turned a deeper shade of red.

She crossed Ino's keen, knowing eyes. The young Nara woman was not among the best interrogator for nothing and if this continued any further it would not be long for Ino to find out everything.

"So like you not to share!" The young pregnant woman pouted.

"Hey, I never prodded about you and Shikamaru!"

"But I still shared with you!

"I didn't ask you to!"

A soft knock at the door interrupted them; it was Shikamaru, who had come to see his wife.

"Are you girls done?" the young father-to-be asked. "Is everything fine?"

"Yes, we are done," a very much flustered Sakura hurriedly replied, handing the health report to Shikamaru. "They are both doing great."

"Don't think I'm done with you yet, forehead!" Ino warned but Sakura was already pushing her out of the exam room; to find Naruto propped against the wall outside, apparently waiting for them.

It was already late afternoon and since Shikamaru had headed towards the hospital, Naruto had decided to accompany him to see if Sakura was finished for the day.

"Sakura-chan!" his smile was the usual bright as he saw her, then turning towards Ino, "Ino! How are you? And the baby?"

"Yeah…I'm sure in _all _positions," Ino grumbled sourly, glaring at a startled Naruto.

Naruto blinked. "Huh?"

"Bye Ino, Shikamaru!" Sakura hurriedly grabbed Naruto's hand and tugged him away, not giving the Nara woman time to say anything more.

Sakura had already walked several steps through the wide hospital lobby and Naruto lowered his eyes – to stare at their linked hands. She was _still_ holding his hand and she seemed not to be even aware of it. She must be really preoccupied by something, he thought, feeling a thrill at the simple prolonged contact. His fingers curled and tightened around hers.

For the simple reason of not wanting her to release him, as he knew she would, he did not question her about Ino's comment, or what had put her in such a condition, instead wordlessly set out to savor the so simple gesture and sensation of having her smaller, soft yet so capable hand interlinked with his. It was only when they reached the doors that Sakura came to the flustered realisation that she was still holding his hand and Naruto was forced to let go when she pulled away.

"What was Ino talking about," Naruto asked much later after dinner that night. They were in the living room, both sitting on the high piled, soft rug by the fireplace – their usual relaxing place - Sakura working on some scroll on the low table while he reclined in a cushion propped against the foot of the couch, just lazing.

Sakura paused in her writing and groaned inwardly. Trust him to ask that question. She had thought he had forgotten about Ino's parting comment, seeing that he had not made any mention about all this time, but apparently she had been mistaken. She wondered whether she could plead ignorance, but looking at his quizzical expression, she knew she would be able to get out of this as easily.

She sighed. "She was just being nosy," she said evasively.

He quirked an eyebrow and to her chagrin, he did not let it go, as she had anticipated. "Nosy? In what way?"

Reluctantly, she grumbled, "She was poking about our, err, sex life."

"Ooooh." Blue eyes lit up in mischievous mirth. "So that's what she meant by 'all positions'," he chuckled.

She glared at him, indignant and mortified at the same time. "You find it funny? You're as bad as her!" she accused. "I felt so cornered! Thank god Shikamaru appeared at the right time because I would surely have made a blunder. Next she would have wanted to know about our preferred position!"

He flashed her a cheeky grin. "Well, you could have gotten a bit creative!" he winked and she blushed.

"Narutooo," she growled.

"What? Nothing complicated in that!"

"For you pervert maybe!"

"Have you ever…? Did you and Hisagi?"

The question fused out so unexpectedly that she jerked straight. She gaped, utterly disconcerted, at him. Even Naruto seemed surprised by his own words.

"What? _No_." She snapped, her reply automatic. She and Hisagi had not gone beyond the single kiss stage – their story had been so short, one week only.

But she was incensed at Naruto's question. How could he have asked that? She was upset and offended; this type of question was not asked! Well, at least not in a normal conversation; it was too personal, only to be discussed with close friends.

Close friends. Her anger deflated. Ino had asked her the same question when she had been going out with Hisagi and she had not feel as outraged as she felt now, so why was she so riled up with Naruto asking this same thing?

Naruto was already feeling bad seeing her obvious discomfort. It was a personal boundary he had crossed and he berated himself; he had promised her not to cross any boundary and here he was, disturbing her with personal questions.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, genuinely contrite, all teasing having disappeared from his face. "I should not have asked that type of question."

But Sakura's anger was already abated. This was Naruto, and they were best friends. There should not be such inhibitions about personal questions. Come to think of it, they had never, ever talked about anything in the direction of each other's intimate life. It was strange considering that they had always been able to confide in anything else.

"It's ok," she said quietly and he gave a sigh of relief.

But her curiosity was aroused and she in turn could not help returning the question. "And you? Have you ever..?"

Naruto froze. He felt very, very doomed suddenly.

"Err…"

Sakura stared at his strained face. Her eyes widened. "You…_have_?"

"Uh, well, I almost did. Once." Naruto did not know why he almost winced as he said it, as if he felt guilty or something. He looked at Sakura, unsure of how she would react. She seemed to have frozen, and for a second or two her expression was completely blank. Then her green eyes dropped to her scroll on the table.

_Almost did..._Sakura felt unbelievably floored. She could not understand why she should be feeling so shocked. The image of Naruto being in any way as close as that with another woman… she simply could not fathom this fact. And she could not bring to ask herself why.

Feeling his eyes on her, she forced herself out of her stupefied state. "Oh," she only said as comment, feeling that she should at least say something.

"It was for my 22nd birthday," he said almost defensively, feeling the need to justify himself. "Remember that the boys planned an out of town drinking night?"

She nodded mutely, not knowing whether she wanted to know and at the same time, like a masochist, she felt the need to know.

"Well, they hired a Geisha. As my gift." It seemed sordid when he was telling about it, but Sayuri, the Geisha they had hired, had been anything but sordid. She had been well educated, friendly and funny, and a graceful dancer, as she had performed a dance for the group; but he did not need to tell Sakura all this.

"I was quite drunk and the mood was very…boosting," he continued as she did not say anything. The boys' jabs about him being the only twenty-two years old virgin male got to him and he had thought why not? At that time, he had thought what was the point of holding out for …what?

Sakura gave a casual shrug and a forced bright smile. "Well, yeah," she said in a voice that matched her smile. "That, I'm sure, must have been a much appreciated gift!"

Naruto visibly flinched. "But finally, I could not get to it," he said quietly. When it had been time to actually get to serious things, he had backed out. Drunk as he had been, he had not been able to cross that step.

_But he had considered it,_ was Sakura's thought, _and had been close to._

Two days later, they got one of the rare sunny day of that winter season, the air crisp, the sun warming enough for people to be enjoying the outdoor. Kakashi winced as he tried to move his right arm, convinced that his shoulder was dislocated. He also sported quite a few other bruises and bumps.

Propped raggedly against the same tree trunk as him was Naruto, who looked even worse than him if possible, what with that terribly swollen jaw which had distorted part of his face and the black eye, and a deep cut, most probably done by a flying splinter of a rock, showing via the torn fabric of his pants on his upper leg, looking nasty and already turning an interesting shade of purple.

The training grounds shared their pitiful state: upturned trees, cratered ground, cracked boulders.

All this after only one hour of training.

"What did you do?" Kakashi asked almost forlornly.

Normally, he would never think about prying in the domestic affair of his two former students, but having been at the receiving-end of the wrath of a particularly bloody-mood kunoichi, he was beyond caring about minding his own business. It had to be the blond's fault, he was sure. He was almost regretting having accepted the proposal of the young Hokage for a team training; team training my foot, the grey haired man thought. It had mostly been a get-pounded-to-a-paste-by-Sakura hour.

Naruto grimaced, only to groan in pain as the simplest movement of his face hurt. "She learnt about my 22nd birthday."

"Ah…" _Sayuri…_

Both male winced as they watched the third male comrade receiving his share of 'training', the blond and the grey heads moving in perfect synchronisation as they both followed the high arched trajectory of poor Sai being punched through the air to land a hundred feet away, a silent ouch! in their minds as the black haired Secret Ops captain crashed into the ground and remained unmoving for some long seconds.

Again in perfect synchronisation, both heads turned towards the source of their pitiful state, the pink hair billowing about her head, eyebrows jammed together in concentration, green eyes flashing and the glow of chakra slowly fading away from her tightened fists.

The rules of their spar had been as usual: It had been a solo stealth and ambush, meant no pairings allocated; whoever fell on whoever sparred. And only basic ninjutsu and taijutsu was allowed, so, Naruto was not allowed into Sage or Kyuubi mode and Kakashi had not been allowed his Mangyeku sharingan, but Sakura's chakra enhanced punches and kicks had fallen into the basic ninjutsu, to the later dismay of the three males.

She had been ferocious, seeming to have sprouted an additional surge in her already monstrous power and had set out to demolish their defences and attacks and beat them, each in turn, to a pulp.

"And you brought us for sparring to be her punching bag," Kakashi mumbled accusingly, and Naruto mumbled an intelligible reply back.

Kakashi had been the one to propose the idea of Naruto's 22nd birthday gift to the boys, and he quivered at the thought that Sakura getting to know about _his_ role in that idea. But she could not know it, he consoled himself, otherwise he would have been in a much worse state. Thus, it was the team as a whole who got to face her wrath. _Logical_, he figured.

A short while later, Sai managed to limp to them and dropped by their side. "What got into her?" Sai asked quietly, grimacing as he sat down on the grass. The other two did not have time to reply as the one being talked about walked in their direction.

The three males watched their former female team-mate almost apprehensively. Usually, if they were wounded during training, she would heal them on the grounds itself, but in her current dark mood it was difficult to expect any such thing. They all breathed a sigh of relief as wordlessly, she removed her glove and brought the usual green chakra to her palms.

She started with Sai's healing.

"Can we go for ramen afterwards?" Naruto almost timidly called out from his place. She gave an unladylike grunt, leaving him to debate whether it was a yes or a no.

Next she moved to Kakashi. "You're getting old, Kakashi-sensei," she remarked, feeling a tad guilty as she healed his dislocated shoulder.

Kakashi made a face. "I would say that you are getting stronger, Sakura."

A short while later she was done with him and Kakashi immediately got to his feet. "We'll wait for you two at Ichiraku," he said, then he and Sai blurred out of view before Sakura could say anything.

She finally turned to Naruto, who was still propped against the tree trunk. She moved to kneel in front of him and set to work. As expected, most of his less serious bruises and cuts had already been auto-healed, so she started with the cut on his leg, which took only a few minutes of her healing chakra.

Then she got to his black eye. Focussing only on the black area and not on the blue orbs that was watching her, she set to work, and a few minutes later, it was as good as new, with only a trace of redness around.

Next was his swollen jaw. She felt relieved to note that it was not broken, and her green chakra started to work on the bruised flesh as she hovered her palms over the swollen area.

All the while, blue eyes surveyed her as she silently concentrated on her task, her face so close that he could see each individual pink, long eyelashes which curtained her eyes from view.

"Are you still angry?" he finally asked in a low voice.

She had been distant to him the two days since their discussion, and he could not bear her aloofness any longer. He much preferred that she punched him to a pulp rather than face the cold treatment that she had been giving him. Along all this, not for one minute had he questioned the why and the validity of her upset; that had come down to be irrelevant. He took comfort in the fact that she _was_ angry, that she had taken the right to be upset.

Sakura pursed her lips, green eyes burning up to his and shook back her long, pink tresses in an achingly familiar gesture of angry exasperation. "Why should I be angry?"

"It was three years ago and it didn't _mean_ anything," he insisted softly as if she had screamed "Yes, I'm angry."

"I'm not angry," she refuted again, the way she lifted her dainty nose in the air and glared at his jaw as get back to her belying her words. "You were free to do what you want."

He noted her use of the past and did not comment on it, only accepting it with a thrill at what it meant. Sensing that she was about to be done with his jaw, he moved his face the half inch needed forward and a slight angle downward, and planted a soft kiss in the centre of her palm.

Green eyes widened at the soft brush of his lips and she felt a tingle running up her arm. She looked up to meet his eyes, blue and serious, the sunny blond spikes falling over his forehead. For one moment they stayed still and time seemed to have stopped.

Then, before she could react, he was already scrambling up.

"I'm not done with healing you yet!' Sakura protested automatically but he smiled down at her, his usual, warming smile.

"I'm not hurt anymore," he simply said and held out his hand to her.

Sakura felt all her dark mood of the previous two days melting and she realized how much her sour behaviour had been unfair and uncalled for. Her eyes finally warmed as she took the offered support and he pulled her to a stand.

"Let's hurry, the other two are waiting," he said, and they made their way to Ichiraku, the subject not raised ever again.

To be continued...


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:**

**Thanks once more for all the reviews and encouragements. It really warms my heart.**

**Quite a lot of controversies for the last chapter and I thank all of you for your valuable input. **

**I had been running so late with the update of this chapter that I have rushed a bit with the editing, so most probably there will be a lot of mistakes here – sorry for that.**

**XXXXX**

…_**and barriers started to fall….**_

An angry Naruto stood looking out the window of the Hokage office, the details of the village below barely registering in his preoccupied and dark thoughts. Shikamaru and Neji, the only two still present from the Hokage team, sat in front of Naruto's large desk. The mood in the room was as grim as the winter evening's weather outside.

It was in times like this that Naruto really felt the restrictive limitations of being the Hokage. He wanted to be out there in the field, turning all rocks and searching all crooks to find those who were responsible for what happened, not helplessly standing so in his Hokage tower.

"I won't let this pass," Naruto said in a sombre tone. "Whatever it takes, we'll have to find those who did this."

Shikamaru sighed. They were all of the same state of mind and opinion; Naruto did not need to say it. "We should be getting the second set of reports by tomorrow morning," he said to the back of Naruto's head. They had just concluded the first and initial field report meeting.

The Hokage's office as well as all the main departments connected to the running of Konoha had been in a major uproar since the middle of the previous night, when a full platoon of two jounins and six genins, all in terrible wounded and near death state, had been brought in by some patrolling guards.

Two patrol guards, who had been in their usual Fire Country border patrolling duty, had tumbled upon the whole team of eight shinobis in a near comatose state late afternoon the previous day. The two guards had immediately called their other nearby colleagues for reinforcement to urgently transfer the injured back to Konoha, which had taken about four hours, arriving in Konoha near midnight.

While the eight shinobis, five males and three females, had been sent straight into intensive care, Naruto had immediately called in for an emergency meeting with his team. Among first things, upon checking with the records, it was found that the two teams, each consisting of three genins and one jounin teacher, had been paired together for a simple C rank mission to help out a small village that had been severely afflicted by a fierce snow storm; village which was found near the border of the Fire country and Rock country.

An immediate reconnaissance ANBU team, under Sai captainship and their best trackers from the Aburame and Inuzuka clan had been immediately despatched to investigate and gather as much information as possible.

The first field investigation report Naruto had received an hour ago had not been much informative on the attack itself. No clue had been discovered on the site where the group had been found; no trace of chakra signature, any prints or blood..., nothing. The first findings and conclusion that Sai and his team had reported was that the group had been transported to the discovery place and the actual attack and fighting had been somewhere else.

They had also learned that the teams had completed the mission four days ago and had set out for the three days travel return to Konoha on that very day.

Now, it was way past sundown, almost twenty hours since the injured shinobis had been brought in and as at yet, they had not been able to obtain any statements from the victims; all the eight of them had been unconscious and all the time under intensive treatment. The last report received some hours earlier from the hospital had brought bad news and had been what had set the dark mood over the young Hokage.

They had lost one man – one of the jounin teachers.

As per that last update, six had been declared as out of danger but still unconscious; the seventh one, a genin, a young boy of thirteen who had been in the worst state of all since the beginning and who, despite having been the first to receive treatment, was still in a critical state and still remained under intensive care.

In the meantime, Naruto and his best men had been working out possibilities and suggestions, strategies on how to proceed and actions to take, but nothing could beat out the hollow feeling that was gripping Naruto. It hurt that he had lost a man in duty – it made him feel so utterly helpless.

This was the first such incident under his Hokageship; till now, he had been counting himself lucky that he had not lost any men in duty since he had taken the post of Hokage.

All nations have been in peace since the war and there had barely been any such major disruptions; missions had been basically safe with no casualties. S Class missions had been sparse and few and had till now been successfully carried out. But with this attack, thus ended the short respite of peace and calm that they had been enjoying since the war.

It had almost slipped Naruto's mind that being shinobis of a hidden village, deaths formed an integral part of their daily occupation and they were always putting their lives in frontline, and this attack on his men came as a rude awakening to their realities.

There was no ignoring it; the attack was a direct attempt at Konoha. According to the hospital reports, the injuries inflicted to all eight shinobis,–to those young genins – had been purposeful; the goal a slow, inexorable, certain death.

In a near death state, but not dead. Then they had been calculatedly left in a place where the Konoha patrols guards were bound to find them, and Naruto could only reach the conclusion that it was all a defiant message to Konoha.

As for the question of who and why - Naruto and his team already had a small suspicion of who could be behind the attack– though he could not act on it yet, not without firm evidence. All their speculations led them to a small, newly established village called the Wheat Village, which had, since five years now, erupted on a no-man's land between the far end of Fire and Rock border; village which neither the Fire country now the Rock country could lay claim onto and which was supposed to be farming based.

Konoha spies along with those of Suna had reported suspicions activities of the some of the village inhabitants, most importantly, those of its leader and a small group of people. They believed that this group was knowledgeable in ninja arts and were making use of it by taking rogue missions, though always careful about hiding the facts so well that there were never concrete evidence on their activities. The reports had never been confirmed because the leader had always point blankly refused to collaborate on any diplomatic missions from Konoha and Suna, and had always kept a too suspiciously low profile.

The travel trajectory of the attacked teams and the place where they had been discovered made the suspicion to be feasible they had been close enough to the Wheat village.

A soft knock broke into his dark musings and Naruto spun around to see his secretary at the door.

"The latest report from the hospital, Hokage-sama," the male jounin murmured, and deposited the file on his desk before leaving.

In two strides Naruto was at his desk and picked up the report to flip it open- and flinched in pain. They had lost the last patient – the 13 year old boy. That made two men lost in battle. Two men too many.

Statistically speaking, seeing that all eight of them had been fatally wounded with the clear aim of achieving a slow certain death, six out of eight making it was already an astounding success. But in such case, Naruto could not help but focus on what they had lost. He wordlessly handed the report over to Shikamaru, who, along with Neji, had already guessed the outcome of the report judging from the paling face of the Hokage.

Naruto balled his fists in anger. He was supposed to bring universal peace to their world. Many people had been counting on him for that – Nagato, Jiraiya, even Itachi. Ending and winning the fourth war had been the first step to achieve the peace, but now when he lost people like this, when he had a whole platoon of his shinobi wounded as sneakily like this, it made him question his success towards ever achieving that goal as there would always be some group or organization who would threaten the peace. But he would never give up; he had taken the vow to protect his village, his people and peace and he intended to do everything to find the culprits behind this.

"This is bad," murmured Shikamaru.

_Sakura_, thought Naruto.

Hers were an even darker and difficult plight right now. Having thus received the eight men with the tiniest flicker of life still present, it was as if by an obscene, perverted intent, it had been left to her and her team to change the balance of life or death. Naruto knew she would have given, without a doubt and as usual, her utter all to save them, and still losing two would have been devastating on her.

There was nothing more to be done in his office. "I'm going to the hospital," he told the other two, already at the door.

Both immediately rose to their feet.

"Let's go," Neji said quietly. As the chief of defense security, he had already taken all precautions and the security around the village had been put on high alert. He had also increased the security effective around the Hokage's residence and instead of one ANBU trailing the Hokage and his wife, he now had two for each, just in case. Unknown to Sakura, since her marriage with the Hokage, she had an ANBU constantly trailing her and stationed at the hospital wherever she was on duty. It was no brainer that as the Hokage's wife, she was an as potential target as the Hokage himself, if not more, and it was up to Neiji to ensure that she was given tighter protection now.

**XXXXX**

Sakura was feeling devastated and completely drained. She was chakra depleted and was currently running on solider pills to keep her on her feet and still going, her last meal having been dinner the previous night, almost twenty-four hours ago.

Her team had work superbly, but she had taken the brunt of the work since most of the healing had been up to her expertise alone. Even Shizune could not have perform some of the treatments, and Tsunade was absent for the moment, being away for as short trip to the Slug world.

At the back of her mind, Sakura knew she had overdone it. The little coherent bit left in her was sending her warning signals about a danger of collapsing, but she felt incapable of doing anything about it and sat there, in the stunned state, the total exhaustion or the lack of food the least of her ailments right now.

She remained seated on the wooden bench right outside the Intensive Care Unit, where she had just lost her second patient of the day. A thirteen years old young boy. A genin, with a certain bright future ahead.

She stared blankly at her feet for what seemed an endless time, not really aware of the busy and bustling medical staff around her. She had already submitted her report and technically, there was nothing more she could do right now; she did not have anything left in her to be useful and she should be off duty already. The relieving team of medics were already taking charge of the follow-up care now that the remaining six was out of danger.

But Sakura still sat there, unmoving.

Since years now, she had come to painfully accept that in her field of work, failure meant losing lives of her patients. She had learned, over the years, how much the wall between life and death was flimsy; it took a second to tear through it. She was realist – she had come to terms with the fact that she would not be able to save _all_ the patients that came under her care; such an idea would have been too arrogant of her, had been among the first thing Tsunade had told her when she had started her med-nin training. They were humans, after all, with limitations and not infallible. They were not God.

But still, the wishful thinking, the pain, the despair, the helplessness and the utter guilt she felt had never decreased over the years. Always, after she lost a patient, which she must say she was lucky they were rare cases, Sakura had held the unforgiving sentiments that she had been too slow, her chakra had not been enough, the hands had not been adept and quick enough; wishing she had a jutsu which could turn back, or at least stop time so that she could erase the event and restart again; having the unrealistic wish for a second chance to do things correctly and saving the patients.

The approaching soft steps didn't register in her darkly miserable thoughts – people had been milling about her without her seeing or hearing them. It was only after she felt someone shuffling close that she stirred and lifted her face to find Naruto standing in front of her.

He lowered his frame and sat on his hunches in front of her, bringing his face level to hers. He was not overly surprised to find her in this dazed and hurt state; it was as he had been expecting. She had been like this the odd times she had lost patients during the past years. Twenty-five years old seasoned shinobi and medic she may be, but she was still soft when it concerned emotional matters, still hurt a lot when she lost patients. That was what made her _Sakura_.

"Sakura-chan," he said softly. Dulled green eyes looked into the comforting blue and equally tired and hurting eyes.

"Two died," she said, her voice breaking slightly, but she steeled herself. It could not do for her to break now. She was the head medic and she should not break down. She thought about the parents and families of the two deceased and her heart twisted in pain.

Wordlessly, Naruto encircled her shoulders and dragged her face into his chest. He silently held her, no words exchanged. Over the years, they had exchanged all the words needed in such cases to finally realize that sometimes words could be superfluous. As the Hokage, he was too aware of the pain of losing their people, as her friend, he was very aware of her hurt.

He recognized her severe chakra depletion and near collapsing state. She had been in treatment incessantly since the near twenty hours the injured had been brought in; every time he had checked in the hospital she had been in intensive emergency treatment, so it was no surprise that she would be thus exhausted.

This was another thing Naruto found quite unfair. He had the famous immense chakra reserve and it was mostly not put into use, especially since all the nations were now at peace, whereas Sakura was always overusing her chakra almost on a daily basis, putting their people back to health and back to life. Mission or no mission, Sakura was always on full active duty at the hospital.

Not releasing her from his hug, Naruto rose to his feet and slid one arm under her knees, and effortlessly swung her up in his arms. Sakura raised surprised though still bleak eyes to him, but his warm eyes soothed her.

"I can walk," she protested, her hands automatically going around his neck for support.

"Yes, I know you can," he said solemnly, but showed no signs of putting her down, and turned to have a brief talk with Shikamaru and Neji.

The two were in discussion with Shizune, with a few other medics standing to attention and reporting in.

"I'm taking my wife home," the Hokage told the small group.

Shizune nodded. "I'll take over from here," she assured the Hokage. She had been able to take short break in between, contrary to Sakura. "She needs to rest and recharge."

"Yes, I intend to see to that," Naruto nodded.

"We'll inform you in case of anything cropping up," Shizune told him.

Sakura felt peeved that they were talking as if she was not present, as she lay there, held in the arms of the Hokage. But she had to admit that the word home evoked a safe and comforting feeling within her. Yes, right now she needed the haven of _their_ home.

"We'll wrap up things for the time being until the next Intel income," Neji said quietly.

Naruto nodded. He had left instructions for the night shift on guard to inform him as soon as they heard anything in the meantime.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow morning then," he said, all the while Sakura tried to appear as normal as possible, being carried as was, as if nothing, in Naruto's arms like that. None of the others found it strange and no-one had batted an eyelash at the sight of the Hokage carrying his wife thus, and she was too drained to even produce a blush. She knew that words would not make him put her down, and she did not have an ounce of energy left to wiggle down from his arms; and truth be told, she just did not want to.

Naruto turned to walk out of the hospital and swiftly made his way home, holding her preciously in his arms.

Despite her near collapsed state and her bad need of rest, Naruto knew that Sakura needed food foremost. He deposited her in her bedroom and briskly ordered her for a shower.

"Will you be able to manage by yourself?" he asked.

She nodded mutely.

"I'll see what we have to eat. Will you prefer to eat in your room?"

Sakura quickly shook her head. "I'll be down shortly," she said. She needed to be mobile; not doing anything was quite painful for the time being.

Naruto nodded and left the room. Removing his Hokage robe on the way, he went to the kitchen and set about heating up the food which Akemi had prepared. There was steamed rice, chicken, stir fry vegetables and miso soup.

When Sakura came down a short while later, showered and wearing a pair of old sweats –Naruto had already set the warmed food in the low coffee table in the living room, and a fire was crackling merrily in the fireplace. He figured that she would be more comfortable reclined against the plush couch while eating, instead of sitting at the dinner table.

Sakura did not have the stomach for food and made a motion to stop at only some sips of the miso soup, but Naruto was having none of it.

"You need to eat, Sakura-chan," he admonished, his voice brooking no argument and even going as far as to adopt one of the frowns she usually used on him when he was being difficult.

So, she had no choice but to obediently finish the quite laden plate he had set for her. It felt strange, having Naruto mothering her like this when it had always been the other way round; she had always been the one to fuss and mother over him.

They ate in quasi silence, both of them not having the force to discuss the attack. As soon as she cleared up her food Naruto stood up and piled the plates and bowls, waving away her protests when he refused her help, and disappeared to the kitchen.

"To bed now," he said firmly when he returned back, taking her hand in his with the intent of pulling her up, but she tugged at his hand.

"Could I_," she paused and swallowed, "Could we sleep here?" she asked in a small voice, not looking at him.

Naruto stilled, looking down at her.

She didn't want to be alone right now. The merrily crackling fire was soothing and the living room was much more inviting than her lonely bedroom. "I would like some company," she said quietly.

But she need not have justified her request as Naruto totally understood her need for comfort. In fact, he could very well do with some company too. "Sure, Sakura-chan," he said easily.

The thick sheepskin rug was plush and comfortable enough to pass for a thin bed and she could use the couch- her own green couch which she had brought from her apartment - which was as good as a bed. "I'll go get some blankets," he simply said and left.

She had not budged an inch from where he left her when he returned back a short while later, her tired eyes contemplating the fire. He had taken a quick shower and changed into a pair of black pants and white T-shirt, carrying a set of blankets and pillows in his arms. Placing a pillow at the head of the couch, he gently steered her to lie down and draped the warm blanket over her form.

"You're comfortable?" he asked softly and she nodded.

Under her tired stare, he set out to make some room for himself on the rug. "I would definitely have loved some of your strength," he chuckled as he finally managed to heave the heavy solid wood coffee table away from the rug, to a corner of the room.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, feeling useless, aware that he must be feeling as bad as her for their loss.

But he immediately turned to frown at her. "Don't," he almost growled, his serious, narrowed stare chiding her. He walked to the couch and squatted next to her lying form. "Just concentrate on getting some rest," he murmured, running a forefinger softly over her brows.

Sakura instinctively closed her eyes, the rough pad of his finger soothing on her skin. She felt bereft when he removed his touch and straightened.

He spread a duvet on the rug for additional thickness then arranged his pillow close to the couch, right below her head. After having made sure that the fire was well fed to last as long as possible through the night, he switched off the lights and came to settle down, lying parallel to the couch and arranging his own blanket over him.

"Good night, Sakura-chan," he whispered.

"Good night, Naruto," she whispered back.

Barely a few minutes of silence later, he heard her stir.

"Sakura-chan?" he murmured but she was already scrambling up. He immediately rose to a sitting position. "What?.."

Her blanket gathered haphazardly to her frame, she had swung her feet off the couch onto the floor and was gingerly stepping over him. His hand instinctively shot out to steady her as she seemed about to topple over him. Silently, she crawled next to him and settled down on the duvet. In the dancing light of the fire, he saw her green eyes looking beseechingly at him before wordlessly turning her back to him, snuggling into a comfortable position and burying into the tangle of blankets.

Still in his seated position, Naruto stared down at her back, nonplussed. After a minute of indecisively looking down at her, he finally lay back down, his frame now a snug fit between the couch's foot and her own sleeping self. He re-arranged the blankets over them both before settling down to a more comfortable position on his back. He hesitated for an instant, then thought _what the heck_, they were already much against each other as it was; so, throwing cautions and boundaries to the wind, he turned on his side, facing her back and wordlessly encircled her waist with an arm. He pulled her to him and tucked her head under his chin. With a soft sigh, she snuggled back against him.

They both needed this human touch.

"Good night, Sakura-chan," he whispered for a second time that night.

Her soft hair teased his chin and he took a deep breathe; she smelt sweet and flowery. Not able to help himself, he dropped a soft kiss on her head. Almost immediately after, her soft, regular breathing indicated that she had fallen asleep.

Holding his most precious person against his heart, literally, he followed suit soon after.

**XXXXX**

It was semi dark when Sakura drifted out of sleep, the fire down to some glowing embers by that time.

Her first conscious sense was the feeling of being cocooned in a delicious warmth. Blinking some of the sleepy fog away from her mind, she realized that she was lying on her side with an arm snaked over her waist. A hard, male arm holding her against the hard, warm male body behind her.

Feeling disoriented at first, the recollection of the previous night flushed in her mind.

_Naruto_.

They were in the living room, sleeping on the rug. Last night she had been in bad need of comfort; comfort which he had very willingly, without question, provided her.

Two deaths.

She still felt the remnants of the pain of not having been able to save the two shinobis, but it was not as bleeding and gut wrenching as the previous night. In the light of the new day and the major of her bone-exhaustion abated, she held the faith that she had done her utmost best. She had not let any loopholes - she had given her all to save the two.

She took a deep breath. The early morning winter air was quite chilly, but she was not affected by it as Naruto's body was wonderfully warm, acting like a furnace. A living, breathing furnace. And as she took more deep breaths, her nostrils were tantalized by his earthen and musky scent. Very male and very _him_.

She could feel his warm breath, deep and slow, just stirring her hair and it unexpectedly woke every nerve in her body.

She remembered the soft kiss he had bestowed on her head just before she had passed out asleep. Without conscious thought, she carefully pulled back slightly from his one arm embrace and turned her head to look at the sleeping man. She had to raise her face a bit as she had been tucked under his chin.

His mouth was slightly opened as he breathed softly. The timid, almost non-existent light of near dawn fell upon his face, softening the angles and giving him almost a surreal appearance, the three whiskers marks barely visibly on his cheeks.

Maybe because she was still not totally emerged from the haze of sleep, or maybe it was the first time that she was in such close, intimate proximity to him - and he was asleep, giving her the freedom to observe him without hindrance - she found herself thoroughly entranced, unable to look away. She felt her breath caught in her throat, her stomach flipping over.

This was _Naruto_.

Naruto's arms around her. Naruto's broad chest against her. Naruto's heavenly scent englobing her. Naruto's throat merely some centimeters away from her face…

Despite her still lingering tiredness, she felt shaken and warm and blazingly alive, aware of every millimeter of her own body, burning where it touched his and a jolt which she recognized as desire zagging down her belly. She had this sudden, ridiculous longing to press her face into his throat and it was a physical effort to stop herself from doing so. She swallowed.

She had always felt so comfortable and safe, so at home, so familiar with him, and the sudden difference now was earth shattering.

His hair was in a jumbled spiky mess over his face, some strands falling over his eyes and she had the urge to smooth them off his face. Her hand even reached out towards his forehead before stopping herself. This was such shaky ground and she did not know how to proceed. She did not want to abuse what had started out only as a comfort act; it would only create room for awkward complications. Whatever it was, whatever was at the brink of brewing, she did not want it to stem from a need of comfort.

So, keeping her hands to herself, she merely looked at him, studying the small details of his face. The tiny rational part of her was berating herself for staring when his eyelids trembled and moved open.

Lazy, blue orbs blinked at her, trying to adjust to wakefulness.

Her breathing stilled and her eyes widened despite herself as she was caught so blatantly staring, and she braced herself for whatever would follow. But Naruto lay motionless. Sleepy blue eyes darkened, looking down at the wide green eyes looking almost apprehensively at him.

He became slowly aware of how their limbs were tangled. More importantly, how she felt so soft and pliant against him. So snugly and tantalizingly close.

A warm, pure masculine pleased glint entered his eyes as he continued to silently survey her.

She was the one who, flustered and needing to do something, broke the gaze and turned away from him, starting to wiggle off. But his hold on her did not loosen, refusing to let go.

While still firmly holding her wiggling frame – though Sakura had to admit that by now she were not making a convincing effort - Naruto shot a sleepy glance towards the window. By the intensity of the light, he deduced it must be still somewhere around 6 a.m.

"We still have an hour or so more," he rumbled, his voice raspy from sleep and she paused in her feeble attempts to get away from his hold

And before she could utter any reply, and maybe it was because he was still so sleepy that he did not ponder too much on his moves, he tightened his arm around her waist and firmly drew her closer against him, and shifted so that he was snugly spooned against her back, her head tucked firmly below his chin - back to how they've been when they set to sleep last night.

But this time she was not exhausted to death. She was awake and totally aware and her breath hitched audibly and she stiffened despite herself.

"Naruto…" she started, her voice husky with a mixture of sleep, tiredness and nerves.

"Just sleep, Sakura-chan," he rumbled wryly. "We both badly need it."

"And you will not go at the hospital this morning," he added after a short pause as she mutely teetered on a stay or flight mode.

Anticipating that she was about to protest, he firmly insisted, "Hokage's order, Sakura-chan. We need you fully powered back. Now sleep," he finished almost imperiously.

Sakura immediately bristled and grunted in annoyance. Since when had he come so bossy and so…so…words failed her tired mind.

She had to admit, though, that a couple of hours of more sleep would be more than welcome. She still needed the restore her strength and anywhere else than this warm, wonderful haven was less than appealing. And had anything major happened, the hospital would have surely contact Naruto.

His warmth was just so encompassing, his rhythmic breathing lulling, and merely minutes later she felt drowsy again, her system still in acute need of rest.

Naruto forced his breathing to deepen – same as he would when meditating – wanting her to be comfortable. Sure enough, her frame slowly relaxed again and soon she fell asleep again, exhaustion still in her.

Naruto sighed contentedly. It was fabulous awaking in the arms of the girl of his dreams. In fact, it was one of his best waking up yet.

The happy bubble was shortly tarnished, though, when the sombre events of the previous day crept in his mind. Until they concluded the investigation, they had some dark days ahead of them, but in the meantime, he wanted to enjoy this tiny, delicious moment of respite that that he had been granted. Soon, he too fell into a light slumber.

When Sakura woke up later, she was alone and the sun was high in the sky. She could hear someone bustling in the kitchen, and a minute later, Akemi walked in the living room.

"Ah, Sakura-san, you're awake," Akemi exclaimed, not appearing surprised at all to see her mistress sleeping on the floor in the living room. "The Hokage had already left, and had left instructions for you to rest."

**XXXXX**

The following days were as hectic and dismal Naruto had foreseen for his office, leaving no time or the luxury to linger on personal comfort, as Konoha mourned the lost of two of its two shinobis.

The six surviving shinobis were all finally awake and were towards a complete recovery. Their statements were all same: they had been ambushed by a group of three powerful masked males, who had been very proficient in ninja arts. The surviving jounin teacher admitted that he and his now deceased colleague could barely counter the attacks, while the genins had no chance at all. But the identities of their attackers were impossible to know, what with the masks covering their entire faces and no Hitai ate to suggest any affiliation with any hidden villages.

Shikamaru immediately made a link of this attack with the failed attack on the morning of Naruto's and Sakura's wedding. When comparing statements – the link was confirmed, as the masks in both cases seemed to be similar.

This geared the investigation towards a new route, but still though, nothing much substantial was brought forward. In both cases the masked attackers had taken much care to erase all tracks and Naruto and his team was only stumbling in the dark.

Kakashi led a team to the Wheat village to investigate their suspicions, but as expected, returned back without any solid evidence, apart of a gut feeling that it was indeed them behind this attack. Naruto knew that any gut feeling of Kakashi was to be taken to the utmost seriousness, and decided to keep a close eye on the village. He had already informed Gaara, the Kazekage, about the attack on his people and their suspicions, and Gaara had already replied back by giving his support on this.

But since they only had speculations to go by, Naruto could not openly accuse the village - yet. So, apart from keeping a close eye on the Wheat village and increasing Konoha's security, there was nothing much he could do at this stage.

**XXXXX**

Two weeks after the crisis, Sakura was faced with the reality that whatever happened, life always go on. There were always births to counter deaths, the poignant cycle – the beginning of life and the end of it.

One week to her due date, Ino went into labour.

She was brought at the hospital, at mid morning, by a visibly overwrought Shikamaru, while Ino herself was perfectly calm and confident. It was quite a rare sight indeed, to once see Shikamaru so stressed out compared to his wife.

Sakura immediately attended to the laboring young woman and it turned out to be an average-length labor for a first timer – six hours. Sakura was more than happy to spend these six hours by her friends' side, which was nothing like the hours she usually spent in mending people back to life. There was something magical, scared even, in such a task as bringing a new being into the world.

The whole labor and delivery process went smoothly, and Sakura could not help shedding a few tears of joy along with her friend as she placed the healthy, kicking and bellowing-his-throat-out baby boy on the belly of the ecstatic mom, the dazed father looking on, a suspicious shiny sheen on his eyes. He was a beautiful baby, a tuft of dark hair on the head and dark blue-green eyes which Sakura suspected would turn lighter later, same like Ino's.

"But he sure would take some after his dad," Sakura laughed as after giving them a lazy, disinterested stare, the little man yawned and promptly fell asleep.

And seven days later, Sakura and Naruto was invited at the Oshichiya Meimeishiki – the naming ceremony – of the latest addition to the Nara's household. The ceremony was set for the early evening, and the whole gang of friends, along with their respective spouses and companions and children, were present. Counting in relatives of the Naras and Yamanakas, finally, it was a big, joyous crowd which ended being present.

"Let us introduce you to Nara Shikio," Shikamaru announced proudly, holding the snoozing baby, all clad in the traditional white, in his arms, while a radiant but tired looking Ino stood besides him.

"Shikio!" Everybody chorused, showering the baby with praises and best wishes, the gifts given to the parents. But said little man continued to contentedly sleep throughout it, not bothered by the lavish attention bestowed on him or joyous mood surrounding him.

"Seems like we have another sleeper and most probably soon to be cloud watcher among us," Ten-Ten remarked.

Ino sighed. "I wish he could be as accommodating during the night," she said wryly. "He had been keeping us up all nights through the week and I'm drained!"

Naruto peered at the tiny sleeping bundle. "This… _teeny-weenie_ thing has managed to keep you up?" he exclaimed, earning a prompt whack on the arm from Sakura.

"He's is not teeny-weenie, he's a darling, healthy boy!"

At the request of Ino and Shikamaru, Sakura was the proud godmother and she intended to play her role to the hilt. Chouji had been requested to be the godfather.

"That he is, Sakura-chan," Naruto chuckled softly. His eyes could not help but followed her as she smiled and chatted around, simply enjoying the sight of her. They had both been working till late odd hours the past week and had barely had time to spend together.

There was a solemn moment when with the utmost care, Shikamaru had to produce his best calligraphic talent to write the name on the scroll of the birth certificate, to which an exquisite ink portrait of Shikio made by Sai was annexed.

Then, the celebratory, elaborated dinner, which included the two traditional, auspicious dishes of red rice and fish, was served. The adults had all flocked to the dining table while all the kids – a lot between them, were seated at another table. Ino had had the bright idea of hiring two genins for the evening to entertain the kids.

They almost brushed with a disaster when Lee had been about to unknowingly take a sip of a sake-spiked punch. Luckily Neji noticed on time and managed to snatch the glass away before the fluid reached his mouth. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Neji, my good friend, so good of you to look after my wellbeing!" cried Lee and Ten-Ten rolled her eyes. It was one of the things they still had to carefully watch out for, that their team-mate did not drink a drop of alcohol.

Amidst all this, Naruto looked around, deeply glad to be among his friends. It was a balm to be able to enjoy such times together - it was what gave him the force to go on. The last time they had all met like this had been for their wedding, almost five months ago now.

After dinner, most of the relatives left but at the insistence of the young Nara couple, the gang decided to linger and relaxed in the living room for a little longer. Little Shikio was finally awake and Ino offered Sakura to hold him.

It was with a warm pride that Sakura looked down at her godson as she held him in her arms. The little face puckered and he wiggled lethargically, rooting towards her, a sign that he was hungry and she chuckled.

"Shikio…" she cooed, catching one flailing chubby little hand tenderly in her own. She felt a warm emotion rising within her as she held the tiny being in her arms, causing a tug at her heart.

She raised her head and her eyes instinctively found Naruto in the crowded room, sitting in a couch at the other end. Darkened blue eyes were watching her with the baby in her arms. It seemed for an instance, time stilled, it was as if the two of them were alone for a tiny moment in a private world as their gaze locked.

Sakura felt a tremor ran down her spine. His expression was of such a raw hunger, a deep yearning that he was not bothering to hide, so open for her to see, that she was stunned. She could only stare back at him, unable to look away, breath held.

Then a shutter seemed to come across his face, blanking away the emotions, and she felt as if she had surfaced from a pool.

Hinata was saying something in the background and Sakura tore her gaze away and obligingly turned to reply, but she still felt shaken to the core at the blatant yearning she had seen in those blue cerulean eyes. What also shook her was her own response as for a moment, she had imagined herself with a blond haired, cerulean blue-eyed baby.

Naruto's baby. And hers.

A real family of their own.

Kiba chose that exact moment to launch one of his snickering remarks. "Ha, I can imagine the next baby in the group will be a spiky blond with blue eyes," he said mirroring Sakura's thoughts. "Or better still, a pink haired boy!"

"A pink haired boy with blue eyes….that will be a sight!"

And the debate was set off to how the Hokage's couple's baby would be; but the couple in question was silent throughout it all.

to be continued...


	7. Chapter 7

**AN:** Again, thank you so, so much everyone for your reviews and encouragements.

Someone commented about the rating of this story, and I need to specify that this is definitely an M-rated fic, rated such for a valid reason. So, those who are under-aged and those who are offended by/dislike lemons have been duly warned.

**XXXXX**

_**...and then…**_

Sakura sighed as she rubbed her aching temple. She had had a bad day. It had started badly, having woken up late and causing her to rush madly as she had a staff meeting scheduled first thing in the morning; then the water-heater had chosen that morning itself to be broken and she had to do with a sparse, icy wash.

But worse still, breakfast barely over, an argument had started between her and Naruto and she had snapped a bit too harshly at him. Over a stupid issue which she could not even remember now.

His sunny expression had closed, the usually warm eyes shuttered, but she had been too riled up at that time to notice. He had stared at her silently before calmly walking away, and minutes later, she had heard him closed the door as he left the house. He had left without even saying good bye.

She had felt horrible after that, and the whole day had proceeded to go from worse to worst. One of her medics had not turned in due to sickness and Sakura had had to see over his duties on top of her own, and one patient had been in a particularly difficult mood, throwing tantrums over everything and testing Sakura's already waning patience to the limit.

She wondered whether she should call it a day already. She looked wearily at the stack of paperwork she had already completed; some of which she would hand to her assistant to drop at the Hokage's office to be signed. At least the height of reports had decreased considerably in her In-tray; stuffs which she could as well complete on the next day, she thought, for once not feeling the need to be so assiduous about completing all her paperwork.

She had been overworking the past few days, partly because they were still under the load of work following the attack one month ago, and partly because she needed to occupy her mind to the hilt and burn herself out to be able to sleep at night.

She had been feeling so terribly on edge…so restless and unwound, and had been like this for days now; to be more specific, since the naming ceremony at Ino's place, five days ago.

The image of that flash of hunger and yearning she had glimpsed on Naruto's face at the ceremony had been haunting her incessantly for the past five days. Though sometimes she wondered whether she had imagined it under her own emotional confusion, seeing how normal and collected and his own usual self Naruto was, as opposed to her own inner turmoil which was turning her more and more into a mass of nerves.

This acute antsy state made her feel like she was in a perpetual, never ending PMSing phase; her temper had been only skin deep and the tiniest thing had been setting her off. It had got to the point where everyone was being quite wary of her dark moods and treading on tip-toes around her.

And then her lost of temper at Naruto this morning. It was already way past sundown and she was feeling stumped, still feeling bad about her snapping at him.

She stood up suddenly. She grabbed the reports which needed to be dropped at the Hokage's office, deciding she would hand it over in person herself.

**XXXXX**

Leaning fully in his chair and tipping his head back, Naruto stared at the ceiling of his office. The day had been hectic, meetings stumbling over each other. He had just finished with one meeting and had another one queuing up. He would have another late night today, same as for the past days. It was almost one month since the attack on his men and they were stagnant concerning solving the case.

He sighed. He and Sakura had had their first 'marital' spat that morning. Well, not really spat, but it was the first time ever that he had not placated her temper and had left without smoothing an argument. Not that he had been angry, but more that he had deemed it better not to add to her already bad temper.

He had an idea of what was spurning her short fuse the past few days, going by how unwound _he_ felt. This morning's argument was just a beginning. There was no ignoring it, this slow, inexorable pressure build-up that was threatening to explode soon and he only hoped that it would not shatter them away from each other.

He leaned forward and raked his fingers in his hair. He felt on the verge of a terrible storm and was terrified on the consequences; he was terrified of things turning irremediably sour between them, but he didn't know how to undo what was unravelling right now.

This was not something he had wanted; he had never wanted to come to this point of almost palpable tension, this awkward skittishness between them. This is what he had always feared, their easy friendship being threatened thus.

But the worst thing was that he could not broach the subject to her. Him initiating any discussion on this matter seemed such a fearful prospect, and it was not an option anyway, what with all the promises of maintaining limits that he had made to her before entering this arrangement. Confronting the issue with her would be like forcing her hand and he had given her his word that he would respect boundaries, and he could not back off his words now.

He could only wait for now and see how things proceed, doing his utmost not to show his disturbed emotions to avoid adding to the awkwardness and hope they go through this unscathed. Once, he had been told by Jiraiya that sometimes, in dire situation, things get uglier before getting better, and he desperately clung to that hope.

What he really needed in the meantime was something to burn off the boiling energy that was eating him up before he went crazy. Like a good spar. He made a mental note to ask Kakashi for a training session the next day itself.

A knock at the door broke his musings. At his "Come in," his secretary poked his head around the door.

"They're here, Hokage-sama, already in the conference room."

Naruto nodded. "Yes, I'll be on my way."

Another long meeting with the council members awaited him. It was a good thing that earlier he had asked his secretary to have some ramen from Ichiraku brought in for him, seeing that this would surely last till late night.

**XXXXX**

"I'm sorry, Sakura-sama, the Hokage has just started with a meeting with the council."

Sakura's face fell. Meetings with council tended to take hours. She sighed.

"It's okay," she told Naruto's secretary. "Please put these on his table for him to sign." She handed him the reports.

She walked out of the Hokage's tower feeling quite dejected, her arms huddling her against the cold. Spring was around the corner but the nights were still chilly, and her cheeks burned and her eyes stung from the icy late-winter wind. Having nothing else to do, she decided it was better she head for home. The roads were almost deserted, the weather pushing everyone inside the warmth of their homes.

A few food stalls were still open, and a dango shop she passed by lured her and she decided to have some. She bought a pair of sticks and set off her way. She had barely finished the sweet savouries when she was caught in a sudden heavy shower. She groaned as she ran for shelter under the tiny terrace of a closed shop, but the gusty wind still blew the rain under the meagre cover, drenching her in minutes, her clothes getting wet within seconds and her face stinging by the icy peltering rain. Yap, just her day today, she thought glumly.

She was about to fire chakra to her feet to make a dash for it when a desperate exclamation halted her. Peering through the curtain of rain, she saw a man desperately pushing a chariot; but the big two-wheeled wooden cart refused to budge. Sakura recognized the man; he was a fruit vendor and she used to buy fruits from him.

"What's wrong?" she shouted to be heard above the rain sound.

The man, who was soaked to the bone- same as she was rapidly getting herself - turned to her in hope. "Head medic-sama. It's stuck."

Sakura saw that indeed the wheels were deeply imbedded in the soil which had rapidly turned into a viscous mud. She decided it was better that she helped the poor man – she was already soaked anyway.

She tried yanking the whole thing off with her monstrous strength, but the jerk of the effort started shaking the mountain of fruits carefully arranged on top of each other. Not wanting the whole pyramid of fruits to topple down and get spoiled, she set down to carefully and painstakingly unstuck the wheels from the cement like thick mud first.

**XXXXX**

When she finally arrived home later, she was sodden with rain and viscous mud. The hallway was lit – the housekeeper has let the light on as usual, but as she expected, Naruto was still not home seeing that his shoes were not at the entrance. Teeth chattering, she quickly dragged her drenched and mud-caked boots off her feet, in a rush to get in the warmth of the heated house.

She made a bee-line to the guest-bathroom of the ground floor– the way she was dripping mud on her trail it was better that she had a shower first foremost, before going anywhere further into the house.

Getting in the smaller bathroom, she quickly peeled off her muddy clothes and dumped them in the bathroom basket, and stepping in the shower stall, turned the heat high. Remembering that the water heater was broken in the morning, she was greatly relieved to find hot water gushing from the shower; the technician Naruto had called had done the job. It would have been the icing on the cake if she had to do with an icy shower.

A hot, invigorating shower later, she was squeaky clean again and her shivers had stopped. Grabbing the only towel hung in the rail, more a face towel than a bath one, she briskly dried herself before getting to her long hair, ensuring to get the maximum of moisture out. The towel was damp by the time she was done, but she had no choice but to use the same towel to wrap it around her frame, securing it safely by tucking the loose end in the fold at her bust to be decent enough.

A quite un-necessary precaution since she had the house to herself, she was thinking as she opened the bathroom door and quickly ran up the stairs, hurrying in the silent corridor which lead towards her room; but with her rotten luck of that day, who knew what could happen, and she did not want to be caught running naked around the house in the possibility of, let's say, they were under an attack.

She was rolling her eyes at her melodramatic thoughts when a door was suddenly jerked open - the one which she was hurrying by. Having been convinced that she was alone in the house, Sakura yelped in surprise and jumped back.

And stared at Naruto who had appeared at the threshold of the room – his bedroom. She froze.

"Naruto?" _He was home already?_

Aware of her state of undress, she cursed inwardly. Talk about Murphy 's Law. She had not sensed his chakra at all – but then, she had not been looking out for his chakra, being sure he would be in his meeting till very late.

"Sa_," Naruto started and his words stumbled as he got a proper look at her, "_ _kura-chan_…" His feet rooted to the floor.

Sakura felt pinned to place by the blue eyes, feeling suddenly strangely anxious and utterly breathless.

Naruto had concluded his meeting as fast as possible when his secretary had slipped the message that Sakura had come to the tower to meet him. Coming home, he had heard the shower of the ground-floor bathroom on, and now he could see why.

His mouth went dry as he looked at her. Clad only in a towel.

Not a very big towel at that. Not the usual big sized bath one. Big enough to cover her accurately where needed, but skimpy to the extent that it barely reached up to her mid thigh, so that in addition to her creamy shoulders and a lot of décolleté area, it exposed _most_ of her legs. Those _wonderful_, creamy, _sexy_ legs of hers.

And the way she nervously shifted from one leg to the other only caused his attention to be riveted on them and Naruto could almost feel a nosebleed on the way.

Sakura's hand automatically rose to clutch the front of the towel where the knot was still securely tucked in, but it only drew fascinated, blue cerulean eyes to the spot. The tantalising knot- the key to the most wonderful treasure, Naruto was thinking dazedly. A simple tug and…

Naruto felt his ears burning and something standing straight in his pants, and he gulped.

_Danger!_ His mind screamed. His mental and sensory system was not geared to take this right now. He needed to move out of there, but his body did not react to his brain's command. He just stood there, mute. Her punch would come any seconds now, his mind argued, but who cared about a punch, another part argued.

"You finished earlier," Sakura blurted out stupidly, stating the obvious.

The survey of those blue eyes had turned her knees into a shaking jelly and her mind was having difficulty in processing intelligent thoughts. His face contained that same yearning and hungry look she had glimpsed on him at Ino's. It had not been her imagination, then.

At her words, he dragged his eyes to her face and stilled when he saw that she looked as whacked as he felt. Naruto could hear their breathing in the silence. They were treading on _dangerous_ grounds, the thought flitted in his mind again.

"I finished earlier," he parroted as reply, his voice coming out raspy and he cleared his throat.

Her cheeks were pink, he saw, and he suddenly felt an unbearable urge to brush them with his lips. Hell, he wanted to do _more_ than that.

But he remembered his promise, once again. "_Trust me, I'll never cross any boundary_…" It trotted in his mind louder and louder and it kept him rooted where he stood, willing a desperate effort to refrain from diving into her.

Since he himself seemed incapable to move away, _Move,_ his mind willed her almost desperately. _Go, before I do something I'll regret._

Oblivious to his tormented thoughts, Sakura was having her own conflicted and tumultuous feelings to deal with. She knew she needed to move and continue her way to her room, which was at the end of the corridor and only a few steps away, but her limbs felt statued and she still stood there, eyes wide, staring up at him.

He cleared his tight throat again. "You'll catch a cold…," he managed to croak, breaking the stretching silence.

His voice finally seemed to spur her to action, and she moved, taking an unsteady step. His mushy mind managed to register that the step taken was not in a direction away from his line, but straight _into_ him. The air around them shifted and the already charged atmosphere spiked.

To Sakura, it felt as if her body had a plan of their own, drawn by some irresistible force to him. Another step and she stood only a breath distance from him, and he stared at her, forgetting how to breathe. Under his dazed eyes, she slowly rose on her toes and brushed her lips softly against the side of his mouth.

Naruto froze.

Sakura was not sure what she was doing; she had only acted on an urge greater than her will, but now that she had started, she was unable to stop. Her lips tentatively shifted to settle fully over his mouth, as if they had found the one place they were meant to be, and the next thing Sakura knew she was kissing Naruto and it didn't feel particularly daring or strange or awkward at all. It felt utterly and completely _right_.

After the first stunned moment, Naruto released a shuddering breath and she felt his arm encircle her waist and draw her closer and he was kissing her back, eager lips warm and soft, gently probing and exploring hers. Hands clutching his shirt, Sakura shivered, a wonderful warmth invaded her being and she felt giddy and heavenly, her heart singing in her chest and her stomach flipping over and she melted into him.

Time lost it's meaning and Sakura knew not how long later, it could have been some mere seconds or hours, with a superhuman effort she managed to withdraw her lips for a fraction of a second to catch her flailing breath before succumbing to the overwhelming desire for another kiss, and dove right back into him.

The warmth rapidly became heat and the softness a demanding pressure Sakura found difficult to resist and her mouth opened beneath his, allowing him to invade the soft sweetness of her mouth and she moaned. Sinking further against him, she ran her hands over his shoulders and buried her fingers in his hair while her back hit with a solid surface. She was not even aware that he had backed her against the wall and the surface felt cool on her heated back.

The next time she had to take another pause for breath, it was Naruto who followed her mouth with his and refused to let her break contact, his mouth hungrier, greedier. He felt heady with her sweet and intoxicating taste, not getting enough of her.

The tempo of the kiss was quickly mounting to a feverish pitch; it was as if their kisses had taken on a will of their own, as the initial sweet yearning and rightness gathered and hardened into something more dangerous, ravenous, something almost scary that clutched at the base of Sakura's spine and made her lost all sense of reality except Naruto; his arms, his lips, his hands, his scent, his taste…all of him.

Even through the layers of clothing she felt the heat of his body, and her own responded to it with an overwhelming wave of hunger that made her strain closer to him, that made her seek more and he responded by roving his hands over her sides, shaping the curved of her hips and drawing her more intimately against him.

She arched her lower back into him and he slipped both of his hands down to cup the supple curve of her backside over the thick towelling material - the only barrier between his hands and her skin - bringing her flush to his obvious, hot arousal.

_Sakura,_ Naruto thought, still feeling that this could be a dream.

Unconsciously, instinctively, she grinded herself against him and they both gasped, his fingers tightening on her.

_This was real…_A flare of basic, raw hunger jagged through him, threatening to engulf him completely and he fought to get a grip on himself. He needed to retain some of his sanity and control. He released her mouth, his breath coming out choppy.

"Sakura…" he breathed against her lips, trying to calm the mad drumming of his heart.

Her own rapid breath was hot against his neck as she buried her face into him, her lips brushing against his skin. He groaned softly.

"_Sakura…"_ He could not seem to go beyond saying her name.

She raised her head and emerald green opened into darkened cerulean blue. He felt himself drowning in those green orbs and forgot what he needed to say - words seemed so superfluous right now - and rained tiny kisses over her face and cheeks, _needing_ to keep his lips into contact with her. He had yearned for her for so long and now that he could…

He trailed his lips along the soft silk of her cheeks down to her jaw, to the side of the neck to suckle away a small rivulet of water that a still wet, pink strand had been leaking and she shivered in his arms.

"_Naruto,"_ she whispered huskily, the sound feeling like hot sake to his senses.

Lost in the heated wave engulfing them and the sweet scent and taste of her skin, his gaze almost absently slid down –

_ To have his heart stopping for one instance.

One side of the towel had slipped off and a tantalising, perky white breast with ruby red nipple was peeking at him.

His mind went blank.

Whatever shred of control he thought he had grasped went out of the door. He felt like tearing his pants away as the bulging heat between his legs got to an almost painful point. He could only react to his instinct; he curved his back and bent his head down and caught the budding, hard nipple in his hungry mouth.

Sakura jolted, a surprised cry escaping her at the unexpected steamy and hungry contact, hot pleasure shooting through her.

"Naruto…"

She could only whimper his name, her body arching forward as if on their own accord, pushing herself deeper into his mouth, her hands tangled in the blond spikes, unconsciously drawing his head closer and he groaned in satisfaction as his mouth was filled with the delicious softness and he latched on it avidly.

The tuck holding the towel in place loosened further, the soft fluffy material precariously staying up on her by the sheer contact of their bodies and his arms circling her waist; but she was past caring about that as he ravished and laved her softness until all coherent thoughts was wiped out from her and the pleasure escalated to an almost unbearable point.

Her knees sagged under the exquisite sensations and she was glad for the support of the wall behind her as she felt herself sinking deeper and deeper into the sea of sensual pleasure, all rational thoughts gone, years worth of denial shattered, barriers crumbled.

Feeling he was nearing a dangerous no-return point, Naruto stopped and urgently drew back, moving his hands to grip each of her arms and putting some distance between them, needing to collect his wits and intending to ask her where she wanted this to go_ and the damp towel finally slithered down, pooling at their feet.

Darkened blue devoured her.

Fiery colour flooded her cheeks and she had difficulty to maintain his gaze when he looked back into her eyes. He felt blood rushing to his own face and he forgot what he had intended to ask her. Only when she moved forward and buried her face in his neck that he felt able to utter words again.

"Sakura…stop me _now_ if you want to," he rasped, his voice rough with arousal and careful to maintain his hands on her arms, "because Kami help me, any further and I won't be able to stop."

Slowly, she raised her face to his. "Don't stop," she whispered before kissing him hungrily.

It was all he needed. With a growl and not breaking the kiss, he slid an arm behind her knees and he swung her up and walked through the already opened door of his room, kicking it close behind him.

He released her mouth momentarily as he deposited her on his bed and shifted his length over her, and was back at her mouth. Sakura wanted, _needed_ to touch him. Her body was infused with a heat which she feared would consume her in fires soon.

Pulling her mouth off, she fumbled with the zipper of his jacket, clumsy in her haste to get it off, finally impatiently slipping the garment over his shoulders. He raised his torso from her to ease her fumbling efforts and removed the shirt under before joining her to take her mouth for another deep kiss and her nostrils savoured the unique, warm scent of him that was liberated.

She _loved_ the feel of him, loved the smooth skin that rippled over hard muscles as she ran her hands over his shoulders and spine, moving lower back before moving up again. She slid her hands between them, revelling over his hard, rippled chest and lightly grazed a hard nipple with her nail and he trembled, a groan escaping him.

He broke the kiss and buried his face in the crook of her neck, his hot breath fanned in hot puffs against her skin.

"Sakura…" he groaned into her neck, breathing deeply, inhaling the sweetness of her skin.

She felt the warm slickness of a tongue against her skin and sighed, delicious feelings racking her body as his teeth rasped gently against her, grazing the soft skin of her throat, his mouth pausing at a madly fluttering pulse and suckling at the spot to the point that Sakura felt the pressure pounding everywhere else. All the while he ran his warm hands across her satin smooth skin, shaping her waist and hips, coming up to knead the softness of her breasts, running the rough pad of his thumb over the already sensitive, hard nipple before teasing it between his fingers, causing her breath to hitch.

He trailed his mouth from her neck, further down to take the second nipple which he had yet to pay attention to in his hungry mouth, latching on it until she was arching her back desperately in a frenzy of pleasure and yearning for more.

His hand lowered, her taut belly spasming in reaction as he fingered her belly button, moving lower until they homed in on the curls between her thighs, then probed deeper to find the hidden bud that pulsed alive at his touch.

Sakura gasped at the sudden ecstasy it aroused in her and instinctively grasped her legs tightly together. For an instant his hand was still and he brought his mouth up to hers in a persuasive kiss, then as her muscles relaxed, his fingers moved again, gently probing and rubbing, sending such pleasure coursing through her that she abandoned herself to the sensual waves washing over her.

Unconsciously, her tongue rubbed against his in a movement that mimicked the movement of his fingers and aware of it, he increased his intensity until she was whimpering, her hips frantically moving against him, clutching his shoulders until she felt incapable of taking more….She tore away from his lips and tugged impatiently at his pants.

He needed not be persuaded twice and he sat back on his hunches to remove his last pieces of clothing – his pants and boxers, while she watched, awed, as he was finally fully revealed, all golden and gorgeous. She reddened when she caught his blue gaze on her. She was impatient to be back in the warmth of his embrace, but he did not join her, instead stayed where he was, kneeling at her feet.

He could not help being once again entranced by the sight offered to him, a breathtaking palette of flushed skin, emerald green eyes, long pink curls fanned out about her head on the white pillow and the expanse of creamy skin tapering down to her wonderful legs.

He caught hold of one dainty foot and lifted it to his mouth, planting kisses along her ankles, and when he closed his lips over her big toe she gasped loudly.

"What…" She could not finish her gasped question as the heated swirls of his tongue causing a ripple of shock to run up her limb. She decided to follow where he led, letting herself be submerged in the heated wave he was weaving about her.

Naruto could not help a teasing grin at her startled and pleasured expression and spent the next delicious minutes trailing his mouth and hands up her calf – feeling a heady euphoria as he ran his tongue up the fabulous legs that he had always admired. He noticed how her skin erupted with goose bumps as he swept his tongue in circles further upward, her choppy breaths reaching him.

He inhaled the delicious, heady scent of her arousal as he drew higher up, his body clenching madly at the knowledge that it was _Sakura's._

His hot breath on her silky curls at the junction of her thighs jerked Sakura out of the haze she had been drowning in; she stiffened and jack-knifed in a sitting position when his intentions became clear, frantically pulling at his shoulders.

"No! Naruto…!" she choked – it was too much and too intimate and too…too _kinky_ and…her trail of thoughts were lost when he didn't heed to her and she whimpered when she felt his hot, probing tongue on her moist inner lips.

Feeling faint with the heat that immediately flooded her being, she fell back on the bed, her hands clawing the pillow by her head, needing something to anchor herself to while unconsciously, instinctively, her legs parted further apart, inviting him into the most intimate recesses of her being.

She was limp and light-headed and still reeling under the rapturous assault of her senses when he finally kissed his way back up to her mouth, a light of sheen of sweat at her temples, her eyes clinging almost desperately to the cerulean blue; at the same time immensely shy at what had just occurred.

"_Naruto…"_ she could only breathe against his mouth.

His arousal, hard and hot, nudged against her, the blue eyes containing a feverish glint, and Sakura brought her hand down between them to wrap her fingers around his heated length. He groaned as she slowly, tentatively moved her grip up and down him and he buckled his hips into her hand. Not being able to sustain longer, he pulled her hand away from him and settled between her thighs.

"Sakura?" he rasped huskily, pressing against her, asking for permission.

"Yes," she whispered her consent, desperate with the need to feel him _within_ her. "_Yes_…"

When he entered her, the momentary pain was instantly swamped by the incredible, exhilarating feel of him inside her and they both groaned in unison. Feeling every snug, hot inch of her around him, her muscles clenching and shuddering around him, Naruto felt all rational thoughts fled. But soon instincts kicked in and gripping her hips to brace her, he pushed deeper. Her eyes tightly shut, mouth opened in short gasps, Sakura felt an indescribable, intense pleasure coursing through her.

Her legs parted wider to accommodate his slim, powerful hips and he drew out, to thrust back deep inside her, slowly repeating the process until his initial rather clumsy surges turned smoother, until he found a confident, firm rhythm, until he had melded with her beyond the physical.

Heartbeat and breathing picking up, his gaze locked onto the now wide opened green eyes, dilated with wonder and pleasure as harder and faster he thrusted, caught in a frenzy he could not contain, the momentum of their pleasure propelling him ahead, unstoppable.

His hands seemed to be everywhere at once, touching her, adoring her, urging her, his body revelling in the textures of her body beneath his, the soft skin of her thighs wrapped around his hips, the soft breast brushing against his chest at each push into her; her hard nipples inflaming his skin.

Totally lost in him, clutching at his shoulders, she whimpered his name over and over, twining her legs higher around his hips as his rhythm increased, his breathing getting harsher but his pace not faltering and kept on going with an intense ardor.

She could not seem to stop kissing him, tasting him, fusing her lips to his skin, grazing her teeth into his flesh and loving the flavours and textures of his shoulders, neck and mouth, the sound of his pleasured moans connected to something deep inside her, within her heart. All of him to all of her, driving her on and above.

Soon, they were teetering on the edge, the aching pressure within Sakura needing to be released and she almost sobbed out in desperation, and his pace increased his movements, turning jagged, jerky.

Then he drove powerfully in one last time, filling her, pressing the precise spot that sent her flying into a fit of delicious quivering, her muscles spasming violently around his length, her legs flailing helplessly around him, in turn causing him to stiffen before sending him over the edge too, both crying out aloud, rocked to the core.

His weight slowly slackened on top of her and they both continued to gasp. Not wanting to crush her with what felt like his now totally boneless body, he rolled off; not releasing his hold around her though and hauling her to his side, tucking her head against his shoulder. And yet, they both continued to shake, their breaths coming out on short bursts.

"You…okay?" he asked, breathless, his free hand weakly coming up to brush a bang of pink silk away from her deeply flushed face.

For a long moment, she could not reply. She didn't have the brain capacity to form words. She didn't have the muscle control to speak out a reply to his question. It took her a full minute to regain her ability to even start to breathe properly, which was something being the Kunoichi that she was.

At length, she managed to quietly nod, green orbs sinking into cerulean ones. Still too plain worn out, she nuzzled her nose into his shoulder and before she knew it, she had dozed off, exhausted.

Naruto gazed at her sleeping face, her lips red and puffed from his uncountable kisses, her cheeks still pink, her hair a wild disarray about her face and shoulders. He brushed his lips against her forehead.

Shifting slightly, he managed to pull some blankets over them. He would have loved a wash but did not want to budge away from the soft heaven draped over him. His heartbeat was still out of whack, still so much shaken by what they had shared, but slowly, he fell asleep too.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: - I'm very sorry for the long delay in updating. It's the usual reason – things have been so very hectic that writing (editing) took a backstage. I've rushed through the editing of this chapter, so any glaring mistakes here please let me know.**

**Again, a heart-felt thanks to all of you who has reviewed, and my apologies in not being able to thank you all personally. **

**The next chapter will be the last one (I'll include an epilogue in the chapter itself.)**

…_**Who were they kidding…**_

"We must have been stone crazy,

When we thought, we were just friends…"

_London Beat, I've been thinking about you._

**XOXOX**

Sakura's pace was hurried, chakra flaring spasmodically and almost automatically through her soles of her feet as she hopped from roof to roof. Her destination was the hospital. She did not cross any soul on the way; not that it was surprising as the sun has not even risen. It was not her usual mode of going to work, normally preferring to walk the way, unless there was an emergency. But it was not an emergency that was causing her to hurry to her office this time, at this wee morning hour; she going thus because she was fleeing.

Fleeing away from home; fleeing away from the impending confrontation and explanation that was due for the…events of the night. She had absolutely no idea what to do or say or how to act on this morning after, so the easiest route had been to flee – at least for the time being. She was fully aware that it was coward of her, but she needed to regroup her thoughts, to think rationally and analyze everything, and she badly needed to be away from Naruto and from the house to able to do that.

There was no way she would have been able to think logically if she had stayed. How could she process any logical thoughts when she had woken up with her body still tingling and buzzing and still enveloped in those strong, warm arms. So, she had chosen retreat instead of confrontation, needing a brief respite.

In fact, the state of confusion she was in, she would gladly have welcomed an immediate, salvaging mission that would instantly take her away from Konoha for a few days. But of course it was wishful thinking.

Escaping from Naruto's sleeping hug had been very tricky, and she had had to resort to the use of some medical jutsu to ensure that he continued to sleep as she stealthily, carefully wiggled out from his arms, grabbed a clean set of clothes from her room and rushed through an ultra rapid shower. She felt guilty, but desperate situations called for desperate measures; and she _had_ been desperate to get away. Her office had seemed the first appropriate place to go at this hour.

She felt a myriad of emotions and questions hitting her all at once; apprehension and uncertainty about what laid in for them made her stomach churn, and at the same time she felt a shock mixed with elation about the fact that she had made _the_ big jump.

She recalled Ino once telling her that the morning after the first time could be quite disturbing and awkward, and now Sakura fully got what she had meant.

Not that she regretted what happened. She knew she ought to feel some sense of contrition about her jumping the gun like that without any prior preparation or warning, but it was as if all those wound up nerve endings that had been twitching and fretting uncomfortably for the past few days - _if not weeks or even months_, a small insidious part of her whispered at the back of her mind – were now languorously stretching and humming with satisfaction. While her mind was a whirlpool of conflicting emotions, her body was not having any of those turmoil at all. It felt very, very good. Better than it _ever_ had before in her whole life, in fact.

She had never thought that sex could be so…encompassing. She felt changed. Irreversibly changed. Possessed almost. As if she did not belong to solely herself any more, but now belong to another being as well. To Naruto. So _his._

And it did not help that Naruto had been so…_thorough_ in his lovemaking. Her whole tingling body was a proof of that, still pulsing with remembered pleasure. Her cheeks burnt with the fire of it as she remembered his lips on her, those warm hands against her skin, his mouth – oh God, his mouth_! She still felt faint when thinking of the places his mouth had roamed. Even her toes tingled with remembered pleasure.

And doing it with him had felt so right. So utterly right. She could not even imagine being this intimate, this _shared_ with anyone else.

But the glaring problem was how could she even face him after all that? She cowered inwardly just thinking about it. This was _Naruto_. Overnight, their status had drastically changed from friends to lovers and she felt so awkward. God…what did anyone do in her cases? She gave a loud groan; she felt so like a yo-yo, swinging from one feeling to the other incessantly.

The night-duty nurse looked up as Sakura entered the deserted hallway and immediately stood to her feet. "Sakura-sama? What happened?"

"It's all right, Lana-san. I'm in earlier because I have some urgent report to finish," Sakura quickly explained her presence at such ungodly hour in the hospital's premise when there was no emergency. "I left earlier last night, so I have to finish the work," she added at the nurse's flabbergasted look.

As the morning progressed, Sakura was not any closer in achieving a semblance of inner calm or rational analysis. Still reeling and dazed, she could hardly string intelligent words together as she went through her staff meeting. She had to go though her notes numerous times, thing which she almost never did, to make a sense of the work distribution of the day which she had fortunately prepared on the eve. Judging by the funny looks that her assistant and the other the medics were giving her, she knew that on top of derogating from her work habits, she must be carrying the dazed, dopey look that she was feeling inside.

All the while, at the back of her mind was the huge and increasing awkwardness and apprehension of facing Naruto again. She was almost regretting running away like the big coward she had been; she should have stayed and faced the music, instead of going through this slow, agonizing anticipation and dread.

Half expecting him to sail through the door anytime, she was jumpy at anyone coming in. It was only when an emergency case was brought in that she was able to put her predicament aside and she immediately switched to her concentrated, focussed medic mode.

**XOXOX**

Sakura was half relieved and strangely half disappointed when by mid-day, there was no sigh of Naruto. She was completing a report when she was visited by another blond – Ino.

"Hey Forehead," the two-weeks new mom piped as she breezed into the treatment room.

"Ino? How come you're here? Is everything all right?" Sakura was immediately concerned. She had been keeping close tag on baby Shikio, and at her last visit at the Nara residence he had been thriving perfectly well.

"All's fine," Ino waved her worry away. "Shikio-chan is fine and growing so rapidly!" She immediately went into an ecstatic jumble of details about the antics and the habits of her son and Sakura beamed along with her friend at the relate of the new developments of the two-week baby.

"I figured I would come in for my two weeks postpartum check-up and we could go to the meeting together after that; killing two birds with one stone," Ino said.

_Meeting?_ Sakura groaned. She had forgotten all about the departmental progress report meeting that Naruto had summoned them for since a while ago. She had been so intent in being occupied to the hilt, so as to avoid having any idle moment to linger on her dilemma, that it had completely escaped her mind. Her assistant must have surely put a reminder on her desk, but she had not been to her office the past hours.

Sakura paled slightly. It seemed that the inevitable was going to be soon – that of facing Naruto. Feeling the astute and perceptive eyes of her friend on her, she pushed her qualms away and briskly set to work, not wanting Ino to glimpse her woes.

"But you could have abstain from it this time," Sakura remarked as she hovered chakra-enhanced palms over Ino's now rather flat stomach, to check that her womb was retreating correctly. Ino could have done this check-up herself, but the two friends had agreed since the beginning that Sakura would take care of all the necessary check-ups. "Surely someone else from the Interrogation department could have come in instead."

Naruto would not have minded, as these meetings tended to be quite informal and relaxed, seeing that most of the departments were represented by one of the group of eleven friends. It usually turned out to be more a brainstorming meeting, each of them pooling their ideas about improvements. It was Naruto's way of including all his friends in the smooth running of Konoha. And surely Ino would have preferred to be with Shikio instead.

"Nah. It's a good opportunity to get out of the house for a couple of hours to meet all you guys. Shikio is with his grandma and his next feeding is not due for another three hours at least. Time enough for my check-up and the meeting."

"All's good. I'll need your temperature and we are done," Sakura announced a few minutes later as she bent over a drawer to get the thermometer.

"It seemed that the night has been torrid," Ino drawled suddenly.

Sakura jumped and whirled around to face her friend. "W-What?" Was she _that_ readable or was Ino intruding in her mind? was her immediate flustered thought.

But Ino was pointing at Sakura's knee. "That's a very interesting place for a hickey."

Sakura's mouth dropped open and she directed her gaze down.

"At the back," Ino taunted wickedly.

Sakura twisted her neck to look, and saw the telltale crimson mark just above the back of her right knee, almost at the level of the hem of her black skirt. She blushed and groaned, and immediately directed a chakra enhanced hand to the mark to erase it. She cringed in mortification at the thought of having paraded around with this huge flag all the morning.

"Don't worry, it only showed when you bent over," Ino told her, guessing her discomfort. "So I was right. In all positions! And it seems our Hokage really lives up to his reputation of being unpredictable, huh?"

"Pig!" Sakura tried to find a snarky and witty comeback; one that a six month married woman would make in this type of situation, but she just blushed more fiery red.

Ino chuckled gleefully but before she could say anything more, Sakura propped a thermometer in her mouth, stopping her from making further leery jabs.

"No more comments," Sakura growled.

She wondered briefly whether she should confide in Ino; maybe the Nara woman would be able to give her a clue about how to proceed from there. But then she decided against it. It was a too complicated process to explain, and she needed to sort this out by herself.

Sakura's hands felt clammy and she was shaking with acute nervousness as she and Ino stood in front of the conference room of the Hokage tower a short while later. _This is ridiculous_, Sakura thought and resolutely braced herself mentally before grasping the handle to open the door.

At exactly the same time, though, it was jerked open. None other by Naruto himself. Sakura felt her heart stopping for a second.

"Sakura-chan…"

His voice enveloped her and she felt herself drowning in the blue immensity of his eyes, her breath blocked somewhere between her throat.

Then she remembered to breathe as Ino impatiently nudged her forward. "Naruto," she murmured back, her heart kicking to an immediate high-speed thud and her face flushing bright.

Apprehension darkened her eyes as she waited for his next move, almost expecting to see disappointment or recriminations in those eyes about her fleeing before they could talk, at the same trying to curb her sudden paralysing shyness at facing him after…last night. But apart from a brief flare in those blue eyes, his expression was carefully guarded. The tiny still intelligently functioning part of her brain registered the fact that he looked as nervous as her for a brief moment before his usual warm grin illuminated his face.

"Come in, ladies. Kakashi-sensei and Kiba are not yet in as well. How are you, and how is little Shikio?" he asked Ino.

Sakura exhaled a small shuddering relieved breath. It did not go _that_ bad. At least for now. She stepped in, careful not to look at his face, while Ino lingered at the doorway to chat with him. She could feel the heat of his body as she passed by him, and she could only chalk it to their intimacy which had made her so aware of that. Feeling the blue eyes following her as she greeted everyone before she took a vacant seat, she fought to keep a cheerful smile pinned to her face all the time.

As expected, Kakashi was the last one to arrive then the meeting started. Sakura worked to give her total concentration on the meeting and willed herself to avoid looking in Naruto's direction. It worked for the first half hour, but then it became hopeless when her gaze kept surreptitiously gliding towards him; she would wrench her eyes away, only to find them wandering back, skittering over his face and his spiky sunny hair, as usual falling in a mess over his Hitai-ate.

Memories of how she had raked her hands through those soft blond spikes came to her. She burned crimson when thinking about how she had fisted them in ecstasy while they had been between her legs. Jerking her eyes back to the papers in front of her, she bent her head low to hide her agitation, feeling her face would burst into flames any time soon.

From the head of the table, blue eyes watched all her reactions. _I wonder which part she is recalling,_ Naruto thought, not missing her flustered, crimson state and her dazed eyes. He himself was having a problem right now; his body seeming to have a will of its own and reacting to the mere sight of her, which had brought the last night's events crashing in his mind again. It was a good thing that his Hokage robe was quite loose and he had the table to hide his, er, physical predicament.

He sighed. He had almost cancelled the meeting, seeing how unfocussed he had been the whole day. Contrary to his habit, he has called his secretary in this time so that she take minutes, in case he would miss what had been discussed; which he was sure would bound to happen.

He had not been _too_ surprised by her disappearance from his bed that morning when he woke up. He could understand her need to have some time to assimilate what had happened. Not that he shared her apprehension. But he was he; he had been in love with her since so long that their coming together was a conclusion to his feelings. That did not mean that it was as clear for her. So, it was only fair that he allowed her some space, if it was what she needed. He would be patient. He had waited for so many years, and he could wait some more. She was worth it.

They had everything to make a lifelong marriage work…they had trust and respect and faith in each other; they had love…lots of love - he was certain of that as he knew her maybe more than she knew herself. It was only a question of her acknowledging it.

And they had lust…oh Kami _yes_, they had lust.

That was an understatement. He still could not get over how reactive and responsive they both had been to each other; that _he_ had been able to elicit such response from her.

So, all in all, the key ingredients to make this marriage for real were there. She just needed to come to terms with it and accept it, because he wanted her not only as his best friend, but also as his wife and his lover, as the mother of his numerous children, the grandmother of his children's children…Heck, he hoped that she was already bearing something from last night since neither had taken any precautions.

He just hoped that she would not take too long to think over it though, that he got to love her again, because he was already longing for her again. And 'platonic' seemed to be a joke word when it concerned them now, considering last night.

"Oi, Uzumaki, are you here or what?"

Naruto snapped his attention to Kiba, who was glowering at him. They had been at the meeting for an hour now, and he was finding more difficulty in pinning his thoughts to the discussion.

"What is it this time? Found the upper matching part?" the Inuzuka snickered.

Naruto, same as many others in the room, looked blankly at him. Then the meaning of those words sank in Naruto's fuzzy mind. Kiba was making allusion to the panty incident they had months ago.

"Shut it if you don't want to find yourself grounded to D rank mission for the rest of the year, Inuzuka," Naruto hissed from the corner of his mouth as the others kept looking at them questioningly.

"Is it something we should know about?" Kakashi queried, interested.

"Nothing!" Naruto hurriedly exclaimed while sending a warning glare at Kiba.

Ino sent a shrewd look at her husband, immediately sniffing a juicy story. Shikamaru sighed as he caught his wife's look. He was going to be in for a tight interrogation that night. He too glared at Kiba; the guy did not know when to shut his trap. Sometimes, he was as bad as Naruto.

"Kiba has a point. Do you guys have some good news to impart or what?" Ten-Ten piped in.

"What do you mean; good news?" Naruto queried uneasily, while Sakura was tongue tied.

"Are we about to hear of some soon-to-come little Uzumaki…?"

"Ten-Ten!" Sakura finally found her voice.

"Well, you two have been as red as tomatoes all the time!" the weapon expert argued defensively. "So, what can we expect to deduce?"

Ino decided to intervene. "Cut them some slack, guys. Don't forget they must be the only couple who missed out on a honeymoon. So, basically, they are still honeymooning!"

Sakura snapped her glare to her. "Pig!" she hissed.

"What?" Ino replied innocently.

If there was a time when Sakura felt like disappearing into the ground, it was now, as everyone joined in the teasing. In front of their sensei on top of it, she thought in despair, who looked at her with a twinkle in his single visible eye.

She met cerulean blue eyes across the table and felt even more flustered, as the teasing were evoking images in her mind. If only she could keep her reactions under control and not behave like a hormonal, horny teenage, instead of the twenty-five years old woman that she was, she groaned to herself.

Sakura fled away from the office as soon as the meeting was adjourned. She sank shakily in her chair as she reached her office, burying her face in her palms.

This was impossible, she could not take it. It was getting to be too much for her. How could she ever hope to maintain a professional façade in such times like meetings, when all she could think was she and Naruto in rather… compromising states.

Would she ever be able to look at him again without feeling this burning _need_? She wished to go right back to that comfortable way they were before. The only trouble was, she could hardly remember now how things were before last night.

She wanted to have her body and soul back as her own, she thought almost childishly. She envied her previous, easy friendship with Naruto, where she did not have burning feelings and images to falter her.

Whereas now, she felt that every time she would look at him she wouldn't see that friend, but instead the utterly gorgeous, sexy man that she just wanted to ….jump.

She banged her forehead against the top of her table, groaning. She felt on a ridiculous verge of tears and terrified at the prospect of losing that precious, unique bond she had with her best friend. Whoever had said that romance could kill a good friendship had been utterly right, as this was turning out to be a much bigger, terrifying jump than she had ever imagined - to leave their long established, secure friendzone.

They had shifted too quickly from a zero intimacy to everything overnight, in the literal sense, and she needed some_ time_ to assimilate all this.

She needed to talk to Naruto and explain her need for some time. Baby steps. That was what they needed. To take things slowly. To put the _physical_ aspect at the back stage for the moment until they get their footing again.

She squared her shoulders resolutely. She knew Naruto would not refuse her the request. With that resolve made, she felt a little calmer since the morning, and vowed to talk to him as soon as she reached home.

**XOXOX**

"_Naruto…!_"

Sakura's moans rang around the room as Naruto rode in and out her in a smooth, strong rhythm, his breath ragged, his warm, hard length filling her completely and reaching deep within her heated core, his pelvic rocking powerfully against her with increasing speed, while her legs entwined around his slim hips to accommodate him.

His mouth was hungry on her neck, kissing and biting her soft skin before soothing it with his tongue, while his hands roamed over her, kneading the softness of a breast.

He bent his head and curved over her at the same time she arched her back, allowing him to latch on the hardened, sensitised peak hungrily, the intense drawing motion of his warm mouth her following the increasing rhythm of his thrusts.

Sakura felt the now familiar, desperate pressure soaring within her, urging her for release and she whimpered his name, almost frantic. Understanding her pleas, he slide a hand between their bodies and reached where they were joined, his fingers finding the small nub of nerves nestled deep within her curls and rubbed and tweaked it as her cries grew even louder. Then she exploded, her walls tightening spasmodically around him as she came, crying out his name over and over again.

He slowed slightly, allowing her body to ride her orgasm, taking her mouth in a heated kiss until her spasms calmed down. He then shifted to his knees, all the while remaining inside her and elevating her hips to the new position. His eyes locked on hers as he lifted her legs over each of his shoulders, then brought his hands on her hips to brace her firmly to him, the already fired green eyes widened expectantly, anticipation darkening them to a slate green.

_He_ was not done yet.

He resumed his thrusts, the new position giving him the leverage to go even faster and more powerfully into and out of her and both groaned loudly in pleasure. Her moans spurred him to increase his pace, knowing he was driving right into her center by the way she was crying out his name.

As Sakura's cries rang louder at the new intense pleasure, her mind went blank of thoughts, forgetting who she was, ceasing to be, only _Naruto_, feelings and sensations taking over. Her hands clawed at the mattress in an attempt to alleviate some of this new intense pressure, her eyes desperately locked into the cerulean blue, open and wide for him to read and drown into.

Naruto felt his heart soaring, the tightness stretching through his body felt amazing, and with every stroke, with every slip and slide of their sweated and willing bodies, his ability to think was lost to his instinct to feel only.

This time, they both came simultaneously together, their panting moans filling the room. Unfolding his frame, he bent over her and supported himself on his arms, and took her mouth in a sweet, long kiss, until the strength abandoned his arms and he eased on top of her, breathing still harsh, heart still pounding and still inside her.

No wanting to crush her for too long, Naruto finally disengaged from her and he rolled to his side, his gaze trapped by wide, beautiful green one, his arms firmly around her, leaving no room or thought of moving away.

"_Sakura…"_ he whispered huskily.

About one and a half hour earlier, Sakura had reached home with the firm intention to _talk_ to Naruto. Having been in before her, he had already changed out of his Kage garbs and judging from his damp bangs, had freshly showered when she had gone in search of him.

The sight of the old T-shirt stretching comfortably over his chest and those damp, blond bangs falling over the cerulean blue eyes had made Sakura stammering into a halt as she had been about to launch into her well rehearsed speech. She had stared blankly at him for a few seconds, mind devoid of intelligent thoughts and none of the words he had been saying reaching her. And the next instance, not really knowing how, she had been in his arms and they were kissing with a mounting fever, and _she_ had been the one to pull him to _her_ bedroom.

And now she was landed on her bed, still reeling from the aftermath of her second time making love ever, which has been even better, if possible, that last night, their first time. She shivered, partly with the cold now creeping up on them and partly with satiated langour.

"You're feeling cold," Naruto murmured, breaking the silence and immediately dragged the folded blanket lying the foot over them.

Sakura's eyes caught a T-shirt – his T-shirt – dangling on the bed post, and she recalled how she had impatiently tugged it off him to blindly throw it away.

Her face reddened painfully, horribly mortified about how she had not been able to keep her hands off him. _Oh, the indignity of it,_ she wailed mentally, sheepish. It was immensely disconcerting to discover this aspect of her; the one who would get so carried away that she would totally forget herself and throw away all trace of shame and restraint and rationality. She would never have imagined that she could be so wild.

Naruto followed her gaze and the blue eyes danced in realization, and he could not help chuckling.

Groaning, she buried her face in his chest. "I'm sorry," she mumbled against his warm skin, getting more and more appalled at her behavior now that the steamy haze of desire was clearing and rational was creeping back.

"For what?"

"Well, for … umm…" She floundered to a halt. _For jumping on you like that_, was her harried thought. She still could not believe that she had turned into this unrecognizable, wanton woman. She had been doing perfectly fine all these years without sex or any sort of intimacy. Until now. It was as if once she had got a taste of Naruto, of his arms, of his warmth, she was hooked and irremediably addicted, and now her body was trying to make up for the lost time.

"For tearing my clothes off me?" He teased, his frame shaking with laughter.

"Naruto!" She buried her face deeper into his sides. "Can we not talk about it?" she growled embarrassedly.

The words were barely out when she wished them back. She tensed slightly. She must surely have pained him, and it was the last thing she wanted. This was all so delicate that she felt like walking on eggshells, not knowing what to say in this circumstance and fearing to say anything wrong. She moved her face to peer at him apprehensively, wondering whether her words had hurt.

Instead, she saw an easy, genuine smile, the blue eyes looking at her with laughing understanding. "Okay, we will not _talk_ about it," he said, putting emphasize on the 'talk'. He firmly pulled her closer into his arms, gluing himself to her frame and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. "But don't even think about _not_ doing _this_ again," he murmured.

She reddened for the umpteenth time; then settled her head back into him, revelling in the warmth of arm encircling her and placing one hand on his chest, above his drumming heartbeat. She had not had the intention of getting away from the haven of those arms, anyway. She had been deluding herself for too long– and she was not about to kid herself any longer. The past two episodes had proved that Uzumaki Sakura had now the utmost difficulty to keep her hands of Uzumaki Naruto.

"_Finally_ got the girl," Naruto said solemnly, suddenly realizing that one of his oldest dreams had come true. Blue eyes danced with warm laughter as she raised her face to look at him.

"Huh?"

"That was a loooonng wait, you must agree, Sakura-chan."

"Baka…" she mumbled, but could not help the small smile tugging at her lips, suddenly all her previous fears and apprehension seeming ridiculous. This was Naruto. Her best friend. _Her_ Naruto. The one person she had always found herself into. And it dawned to her that it would take much much more to shake this bond they had.

He moved his free hand to where her hand lay on his chest, intertwining her fingers with his longer ones.

"Where do we go from here?" she asked the question plaguing her since that morning.

He raised her hands to his mouth and brushed his lips against her knuckles. "Simple," he said. "This marriage is for real now." He then looked at her half apprehensively. "I mean, I would like it to be a real one. And you...?"

His voice faded in uncertainty, but she smiled at him softly. Yes, she liked that idea. She _loved_ that idea. The point she had come to, she could not imagine her life, her days, her nights being without Naruto. "Yes. I do, too."

But she suddenly felt an uncertainty. She had no doubts that she would be happy with Naruto, but what about him? Would he be happy with her? She was not proud about their childhood days, about her treatment of him, even though that was more than a decade ago. Was she the best choice for him?

"But are you sure that it's _me_ that you would like to spend the life with? I have not always been the best of person towards you…"

Naruto stared at her incredulously, wondering whether she had gone crazy. "What type of a stupid question is that?" he said finally. "Of course it's _you_ I want to spend my life with. It has always been you. No one else. Ever."

She stared at him, lost for words. The blue eyes were open with all his emotions to be read, full of hope.

"B-but…that was…I…" she again found difficulty in streaming words together.

When he presented it like that, it seemed so easy – like always, with him, things always seemed simple - yet she had difficulty in expressing her thoughts in the matter. Finally, taking a simpler route, she raised her lips to his in a kiss in which she tried to put all her feelings that she found difficulty in putting into words…yet. They had all their time for that now. The whole life, in fact. She felt a wonderful warmth unfurl within her and invading her whole being.

On his side too, Naruto felt a warm euphoria washing over him. He smiled brightly against her lips. "We'll make this work," he promised.

"Yes, we will," Sakura said softly.

"For better and for worse."

Sakura nodded, her throat suddenly tight.

"I'm sorry for yesterday…for having snapped at you."

Naruto merely shrugged and grinned. "Hey, it's not as if we will stop being who we are. And I expect many spats to come. It forms part of a _real_ marriage, after all."

He could barely imagine spending his life with her without any arguments – it seemed so sterile and anyway, it certainly did not fit their characters. "As long as we always make up, it's fine," he said.

A short while later, Sakura reluctantly stirred. As much as she would love to stay put in those wonderful warms arms, it was quite late and they should have something to eat. She rose to a sitting position. Feeling acutely self-conscious of her naked state as she felt a cold breeze brushing her exposed chest, she grabbed the blanket – the only thing she could find within reach as most of her clothes were string on the floor – and hastily wrapped it around her frame.

She caught blue eyes laughing at her. "Isn't it a bit too late for that?" Naruto remarked with a playful grin.

She felt her ears burning, and feeling defensive, she bristled at him. "That doesn't mean I'm going to _parade_ around naked!" It was one thing to be unclothed while during the …deed, it was something else to just calmly walk around stark naked; at least not yet. She was not ready.

"You mean I'll only get to see you while making love?" he pouted.

She felt her cheeks heating, and not having a proper come-back at hand, she resorted to giving him her best glare. But it was one of those very rare times when her glare did not faze him out, those beautiful green eyes containing the shyness she was feeling and her cheeks dusted with pink.

"Not even an occasional teeny-weenie peek in between?" He waggled his eyebrows at her lewdly, unable to resist at the opportunity to tease her.

Her eyes twitched. "Uzumaki Naruto…." Green eyes flashed more menacingly at him.

Her eyes got distracted by the smooth expanse of golden skin over rippling muscles of his chest. He did not have the same compunction as her, fully at ease as he laid totally exposed to her eyes, his hands under his head as he watched her lazily, a mischievous air hovering over his face.

"Yes, Mrs Uzumaki?"

She huffed and swung her feet off the bed, presenting him with the wonderful curve of her back, which, despite her attempts at covering herself, was bare. The silky smoothness was so deliciously tempting and Naruto sat up in turn.

"And where are you going?" he queried in a lowered voice, his warm breath suddenly close and teasing the shell of her ears.

A tremor ran down Sakura's spine and she turned her head to find his eyelids half closed over eyes darkened blue with freshly renewed hunger.

"I_" She had to stop as he bent his head and pressed his lips against the center of her back, shivering with pleasure. "Shouldn't we have some dinner?" she asked feebly as he ran his tongue up along her spine, his fingers brushing her pink curls away as he reached her nape, causing goose bumps to rise all over her skin.

"Are you hungry?" he asked against her skin as he nibbled on the side of her neck and she felt her breath catching.

"No…Yes…_Naruto!_"

She didn't know to which type of hunger he was asking and she didn't know to which type of hunger she was answering to and she turned her head to meet his lips, readily and immediately melting into him and giving herself up to the sweetness and hunger of the kiss. The blanket was forgotten as she raised her hand to his face, her thumbs tracing his cheeks and his whisker marks.

He adjusted his position and strong, warm arms snagged her by the waist and pulled her further back in the bed, against his chest, settling her in between his legs spread apart, still kissing her. She could feel his arousal, hard and ready, pressing against her and she felt giddy, her heartbeat picking up a mad rate again as he redirected one hot hand down over her taut belly to go between her legs, while the other went up to knead the softness of a breast and tweaked and teased a hardened nipple.

Releasing her lips, he glided his lips across her soft cheeks. "Tell me what you like," he whispered huskily in her ears, and Sakura inhaled sharply, the request unexpected and almost shocking to her poor, still quite untutored, senses.

"N-Naruto!" she gasped and with a spin, she twirled on him. The look he gave her was so burning that she buried her face in the crook of his shoulders.

This time they took their slow time in discovering each other, Naruto having to use a lot of tender coaxing to get any admissions out of her and mostly letting the tempo and intensity of her gasps and moans be his guide.

to be continued...


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Finally, here's the last chapter. A big, final thanks to all of you…this story had been sometimes a rough ride, and it was your encouragements that saw me through it, so thank-you all.**

**XXXXX**

…_**and they had the happy ever after ending…**_

The hospital was a scene of major uproar; a flux of wounded, bloodied shinobis was brought in, nurses and medics alike scurrying to attend to each man and woman that needed emergency care. In the pandemonium, Sakura had to shout to be heard as she gave precise instructions to those carrying in their incapacitated comrades, directing them towards treatments areas according to the types and degree of wounds, at the same times assigning the medic-nins to each tasks.

Despite the Konoha hospital being one of the best of the five nations, right then it was mostly a case of management by crisis seeing the bulk of patients been brought in within the short span of time, and priority was given to those most severely wounded. Tsunade, who had been summoned in such time of crisis and Shizune were each currently performing an emergency surgery, so that left Sakura at the front line to give a first diagnosis and treatment and sorting the patients accordingly.

Outside, an even bigger chaos reigned; streets were littered with a large amount of explosion debris, a couple of buildings partially blasted off and on fire, the acrid smell of smoke filling the nose and the whole shinobi force, those who were still capacitated, rushing and dashing about, shouting, dispensing and following instructions, while in the background, loud explosions could be heard from different part of the village.

The air was frazzled with thick tension and a distraught urgency. Konoha had been attacked – in the dead middle of the night, where most of the populace had been sleeping.

They had been attacked with a precision that indicated an implacable planning, by what looked to be a group of about a dozen immensely powerful men. Sakura was still dumbfounded that the enemy had dared to make such an attack on Konoha; they must have been very confident of their power to have even considered attacking Konoha with such a small man-power.

And they were powerful; the Konohan shinobi forces were still under the shock of the extensive damage done in such a short instance. True, Konoha had known worst in the past with Orochimaru and Pein attacks – but still, it was unthinkable and shocking to sustain such an outright attack like this one now, within the depth of their village, considering the peace that had reigned over the nations for so many years.

But at the same time, they did have a warning about something brewing up. The last two attacks on their walls and people had been a stepping stone only, they now realized in retrospect when they had identified the one that was apparently leading the attack: the leader of Wheat Village.

Fortunately, Konoha's evacuation system was still among the best ever known, and the civilians, down to the very last ones, had been efficiently and successfully shepherded to the refuge found deep within the Hokage monuments cliff, while all the shinobi had immediately stood up to defend their homeland.

It was now almost three hours since the initiation of the attack, and the last information that had reached Sakura and the hospital staff was that most of the enemy had been brought down. Konoha might have been taken by surprise, but their power and defense strength was still one of the best of the five nations; Konoha refused to bend in front of the enemy and the shinobis would not give in so easily, and had shown their worth by managing to contain the damage as much as possible, and eventually subdued a huge chunk of the enemy's force down.

And while battles had raged outside at different locations in the village, the trio eminent medics, Sakura, Shizune and Tsunade, had been working assiduously on their bloodied, broken shinobis, mending them back to life. They have had uncountable injuries, ranging from minor to severe, but no casualties, yet. Sakura was resolved that she would not lose more men to Wheat country. She still had the deaths of the genin and the jounin in her conscience, and she refused to fail again.

She felt a terrible apprehension gliding down her back; a fear for Naruto's safety. She had faith that he would succeed in driving the enemy out: Naruto would never let his beloved Konoha be taken over, definitely not under his leadership. But her worry was that he would do anything, going as far as to take reckless risks, in order to protect his beloved village.

It was very hard for her not to be out there on the field for the battle, but she knew she was more needed here in the hospital. As a medic, her priority was to save lives – it was her way to shoulder Naruto in protecting Konoha.

Still, the fact that she had no actual idea how Naruto was faring agonized her. And even if it was usual protocol for the still capable shinobis to bring all the wounded that they can to the hospital, there could be some which had not been able to make it or some who would need treatment on the spot. There could a close one who needed treatment out there.

Tsunade emerged from the treatment room, having finished with her intervention.

"I'm going out there," Sakura informed her former master. The flow of incoming wounded was tapering down by now anyway, they should be able to manage without her.

"Yes, Naruto may need you," Tsunade nodded before Sakura could say anything further. The older woman knew how hard it must be for her former apprentice to be in the dark about her husband. "We're okay here, you can go. But do take someone with you," she warned.

As the Hokage's wife, Sakura was bound to be a prime target, and Neji, being the meticulous chief of defense and security that he was, had firmly warned Sakura against taking un-necessary risks and to always be escorted if venturing outside. Under normal circumstances, Sakura would have been obfuscated by the demand; she was a powerful Kunoichi of her own, and she did not need anyone's protection. But she understood the severity of the situation and the importance of avoiding to be taken as hostage at all cost. She would never want to be Naruto's weakness in front of an enemy.

"I'll ask one of the ANBUs to accompany me," she reassured Tsunade. They had a team of ANBUs stationed around the hospital as security, though it was mostly for the patients' safety than anything else. With the former Godaime presence within the hospital, the enemy had to be crazy to venture in, Sakura thought wryly.

Right when she was about to set out, Konohamaru and Moegi appeared, carrying an injured Udon in between them. Sakura immediately attended to the wounded but still cheerful Udon, doing a quick routine poison-check, precaution which she had insisted on applying for each wounded shinobis; Udon's system was clear of any poison, and a quick scan showed no life threatening injuries.

"Lana-san, please direct him to Ahiko-san," Sakura instructed the charge nurse. "He has a broken rib on the left side and some gashes." Turning towards at the two worried team-mates, she reassured them, "He'll be all right."

"We've brought down our opponent," the young Sarutobi said tiredly and triumphantly.

"Konohamaru, I need to go out there; would you accompany me please?" Sakura asked the young Jounin.

"Go ahead, I'll stay with Udon," Moegi immediately nodded.

The night was still dark, dawn still about an hour away. The early spring air was chilly in this early morning hour, and Sakura felt the sting of the cold on her cheeks as she and Konohamaru sped through the streets. Sakura had a first proper look at the extent of the damage. She was relieved to see that it was mostly superficial damage; but this was the least of her worry right now. These were only materials and infrastructure, and they would be repaired within days at most. Konoha always bounced back on its feet.

Her utmost concern was for Naruto. She was anxious to get updates from Konohamaru.

"At first, Naruto Nii-san was fighting with three opponents at once, one of which was the leader of the group," Konohamaru told her, knowing that she would want to know about him first. "Kakashi and Sai took over one of them, and the last I saw them Naruto Nii-san and the remaining two opponents were near the main gates. The leader is strong. All of them were strong, in fact. We suspect that they've been using forbidden techniques or doping of some sorts to boost their power; they were too strong for normal human beings."

Sakura felt her anxiety for Naruto increased upon that information. She refused to think about the probability of anything _bad_ happening to him. It was barely one month since they had started their_ real_ marriage, and the idea of anything happening to him, the merest scratch, brought a deep, unfathomable agony within her. She had always been concerned about his safety, but now it had roofed to another level completely.

"He'll be all right," Konohamaru told her, guessing her worry. "It's _Naruto_. No-one's going to defeat him, especially not within his own village. They may be strong, but Nii-san and his will are even much more stronger."

Sakura gave a tight smile and nodded, though the knot in her throat refused to ease up.

Both of them did a scan to detect any possible wounded as they hurried by. They passed by some randomly scattered fires; fires caused by the explosions that Sakura had been hearing from within the hospital. A group of shinobis was already active in attending to the fires, and some had even started to clear the rumbles away, as if impatient to put the attack behind them.

As the two neared the main gates, they crossed Kakashi and Sai. Kakashi was bleeding profusely from a deep gash across his shoulder, while Sai's wounds seemed to be minor. Sakura immediately set out to heal Kakashi's wound, and she worked they learnt that the duo had overcome their opponent.

"Any news about Naruto?" She asked, trying to hide her anguish, but Kakashi could clearly see through her worry.

"He led the leader of the group and the second adversary out of the village," he told her, his tone carrying the worry he himself was feeling. He was not happy that Naruto had ventured alone out of their walls, taking on two opponents, on top of it. He and Sai had been impossible to follow him, their opponent having kept both of them thoroughly engaged in battle.

"The good news is that we have ten of them down already."

Konohamaru cheered in triumph and Sakura felt relieved at least by this positive news.

"They were all extremely powerful; and the leader even more so. I detected a seal in them which seemed to be boosting their chakra levels," Kakashi continued.

"So you were right, Konohamaru," Sakura remarked. The enemy were using techniques to boost up their power.

Sai shook his head as Sakura made a move to scan him for the extent of his injuries. "I'm fine. These are only superficial. We should hurry to Naruto," he urged. "Even he will not last long taking on such two powerful opponents at once on his own."

Sakura nodded and the four of them rushed off.

"Neji, Lee and Ten-Ten are still fighting an opponent at the south gate, while Chouji, Shikamaru and Ino are with another one the east gates," Sai filled her in as they hurried. "Naruto is fighting the remaining two."

Shikamaru and Chouji appeared at that instance.

"Our opponent's down too," Shikamaru informed them.

"Ino?" Sakura immediately asked, but Shikamaru gave her a reassured nod. "She has headed towards the hospital to see whether she can help."

The Nara was immediately displeased upon hearing that Naruto had left the boundary of the village. "How could he be so reckless, going beyond the gates alone without any back-up," he ruminated as the group rushed past the gates. "There could be a group waiting to ambush him, all we know!"

An explosion rang a bit further out, and the small group rushed in the direction from where the sound came from. They came to a clearing and they had to halt, shielding their faces against the burst of scorching hot air that blew at them. The force of the chakra blasting about was staggering in its power. The whole area was a chaos of a mass of uprooted, charred trees and a raging, infernal fire.

Eyes burning and watering, Sakura frantically peered through the chaos and the billowing, churning fire and smoke, and in a distance, saw what looked to be a huge armadillo. She stared at the thing, which was momentarily still, and she was stunned at the sheer palpable power oozing out of it. Standing on top of its grayish brown shell they could see a man, shrouded in black clothing, sprouting some unfamiliar jutsus which was causing beams of chakra to flare from his hands.

"That's the leader," Shikamaru said.

The beast moved. Despite its size, it moved at an astonishing speed, its movement so rapid that it was almost a blur to the naked eyes.

"Don't get too close," Kakashi immediately cautioned the group. They could easily be trampled.

"Is that a summon? Has Naruto Nii-san managed to bring the second enemy down?" Konohamaru wondered aloud.

The leader was obviously directing that hard shelled beast, which was sprouting similar chakra beams as the man but in a much gigantic proportions at the figure that suddenly appeared in front of it.

As Sakura peered harder, she saw not one figure; but two figures running around the huge beast.

Naruto, in Kyuubi mode, was easily identifiable. It took her some long seconds to identify the second figure fighting by Naruto's side: Sasuke.

Together, the two were fighting the monstrous thing, which seemed to be immune to any attacks that they were throwing at him, its impeccable amour a perfect defense. In front of the worried group's eyes, the armadillo synchronized between rolling into a compact ball by englobing the man within its shell as Naruto fired a Kyuubi bomb at it, the attack merely bouncing off the impeccable amour, then unrolling itself the minute time Naruto paused to build another chakra ball, to immediately fire an attack at him; at the same time it's massive tail sweeping to ward off Sasuke's chidori, like a bat sweeping off a mere ball.

Both Naruto and Sasuke had not much defense against the destructive fire being beamed towards them, and were being more on the defensive rather than on the offensive, Naruto using flash steps and Sasuke using body flicker to dodge the incoming, rapid destructive attacks.

The scene reminded her so much of the final battle in the fourth war, when the two had fought together against the real resurrected Madara and the Juubi, almost losing their lives in the process. At the moment, though, Sakura could not even foster the tiniest happiness that the missing member of team 7 had joined hand with Naruto to fight the enemy; right now, her main concern was her husband, and she could only watch with a mounting fear as the two former teammates fought together with their life.

Seeing that the beast had moved further away, the group cautiously made to proceed further, but they were barred by an energy field which acted like a high wall.

"This is Naruto's energy shield," Kakashi said. It was the same shield that the Yondaime had used to imprison the Kyuubi during his fight with him. "Naruto must have erupted it to protect the village from the ravaging destruction of the beast."

Wordlessly, Sai painted an eagle and an instance later, he was soaring high in the sky, moving above the shield wall to join the two in the battle. His overhead attacks did not succeed, though, the leader zooming in on him and destroying his ink jutsu. Sai had the barest time to draw another eagle which swooped him up before he crashed to the ground, and not giving up, set out to launch more attacks from overhead, while the Naruto and Sasuke continued with the ground attacks.

The remaining stood helplessly outside the shield, watching the ferocious battle raging in front of them. A short distance away, Sakura saw a huge fallen mass. She realized that it was Gamachi.

"It's Gamachi," she shouted to Kakashi. They skirted around the energy wall to the fallen toad. He was wounded, but not fatally, they saw with relief.

"I can't do anything for the boss," the huge toad groaned. He refused to go back in his realm, wanting to see the battle through. "The second enemy transformed into that beast," he told the group. "It has the best defense – it shell combined with its tail. Nothing can get through those, not even Naruto's Kyuubi bombs. And it's timing its attack to perfection; Naruto is not being able to get an opening. It has a wide visual range with its eyes positioned thus, and is able to see any stealth attempt being made on it. One of its attack is leveling ten of Naruto's and Sasuke combined attacks."

That info was staggering and depressing.

"What sort of jutsu are they using, to have a human transforming into…_that_ thing," Sakura said, looking at the monstrous beast in disbelief. Her attention was focused on the now three figures clamped into a ferocious battle against the enemy, a painful lump in her throat, deep anguish filling her.

Shortly, Neji, Ten-Ten and Lee landed besides them, all three of them carrying the marks of a ferocious battle. They had managed to bring down their opponent too, so that left only the leader to be brought down.

"This thing has a chakra volume as great as a bijuu!" Neji said worriedly, his byakugan activated. "It carries the same seal I've seen in the other opponents, which is supplying both it and the man with unlimited chakra. They will not run out of energy soon, and if this battle continues, Naruto will run out of energy before them."

"But Naruto is not even going full on him," Lee pointed out.

Right then, the leader howled a maniacal laugh, his eerie laughter carrying out to the group. "You thought you were invincible, Hokage of Konoha? Your village's defense had been so easy to bring down! It was a kid's play!" he boasted pompously. "We have been observing you for a long time now, same as for the other villages. After you, it will be Suna's turn! Then we will rule the world!"

"Huh, Cocky, much? Is this guy for real?" Ten-Ten said indignantly. "Maybe someone should let this deranged man know that all his stooges have already been brought down?"

"Why is there always some madman dreaming about taking over the world?" Kiba raged as he, Shino and Hinata dropped to the ground besides the group. "Don't they have better things to do?"

"So they knew of our strengths and defenses. That's why my bugs attack is ineffective on them," Shino muttered. "They activated a chakra layer every time my bugs would approach them."

"If only the three could get to the leader," Shikamaru murmured, as they watched yet another attempt of Naruto's failed, the Kyuubi bomb still ineffective against the shell. The beast's tail sweep off another attack that a few clones of Naruto had tried to steal on it the minute it unrolled. "It's obvious that the man is working in sync with the beast. If we can get the man, the beast won't be as effective as he is now."

"But how can they get to the man?" Lee asked, as they watched all attempts of the three to get to the man being thwarted. Apart from the man being almost twenty feet above ground and having a perfect vintage point to fire jutsus at the three, the beast's claws and tail were proving difficult to get past.

"If they cannot get up to the man, then maybe we can make the man get down to them!" Sakura said suddenly. She had to do something; anything. It was_ her_ team fighting out there, and as part of that team, she owed it to the three and herself to do something as well, not just stay here, inactive.

Shikamaru looked at her, immediately catching her drift.

"We can try, and give them a few seconds at least by a surprise element. With his Hirashin, a few seconds could work for Naruto," Sakura pressed on, hopeful.

Shikamaru nodded, "We can give it a try. But we must warn Naruto. I need Ino!"

As if having heard her husband's wish, Ino appeared. "I'm wanted?"

"We need you to communicate our plans to Naruto," Shikamaru quickly explained to her, and set out the strategy. Since the fourth war, Ino had mastered the art of communicating by mind without causing the recipient to lose conscious.

"Naruto will have to give his best shot at this," Neji said.

"Move back!" Naruto called out to Sasuke and the above hovering Sai, after he had carefully listened to Ino's short, precise message being relayed to him. He wanted them out of the way for the attack he planned to launch.

The imperative tone of the command warned Sasuke and Sai that the blond must have something up. After a moment of hesitation, the two complied, and moved a distance away, though both stubbornly staying close enough to intervene in case needed.

"Now!" Shikamaru gave the signal.

With a bellow, Sakura jumped and pounded her chakra laden fist with all her might to the ground.

The few, precious seconds that the enemy took to realize that the ground was caving in beneath them and both the beast and him was crumbling down was enough; Naruto acted on the minute opening, blurring to the man and crashing an Oodama rasengan into his stomach, while two of his clones which he had stealthily readied each launched a Kyuubified rasen-shiruken on the sides of the beast as it was still in the process of closing its amour.

There was a deafening blast which projected a huge wave all around, forcing everyone back in spite of the energy barrier; then with a loud howl the beast along with the leader on its back crashed to the ground. There was a loud Boing! And the beast transformed into a bloodied, badly charred bulky human form. At the same time, not having the support of the beast anymore, the leader in turn fell to the ground, a bloodied gash in his stomach.

"No…!" shouted the man, enraged. "How could this happen? We cannot lose! We cannot be defeated!"

"You can be and you _have_ been defeated," Naruto coldly told the man, looking down at him. "All your men had been defeated. _You shouldn't have attacked my home!"_

Applying a move that Sakura had taught him, Naruto pressed two fingers at the side of the man's neck, who instantly went limp.

"He did it!" Kiba yelled; but the group could not move through the energy barrier which was still erupted.

"Wait," cautioned Neji. "All of you stay here until we've cleared the area."

Sai motioned some of the ANBU to move forward as Naruto finally dispelled the energy barrier.

"Take them into custody. We need to interrogate them to know everything about their group, whether they have more people lying in wait," Naruto told the ANBUs and they took care of the two now unconscious men.

While Sai and Neji carefully scooted the area to give clearance, injured and bloodied, Naruto walked over to where Sasuke sat, as injured and bloodied as him, and slumped besides him on the fallen tree trunk.

"You came," said Naruto, looking at the Uchiha. Just about when Naruto had been despairing, taking the two powerful opponents at once had been getting its toll on him, the Uchiha had appeared.

Sasuke sighed and nodded. "For my two sons, and more importantly, for Itachi." Itachi, who gave his all for Konoha, even beyond his death. "I would never let anything happen to his legacy," Sasuke said quietly.

Naruto smiled and nodded. "For Itachi," he repeated. Protect Konoha. That had been Itachi's nindo.

"And I will need to protect Konoha for my kid too, now," Naruto said softly, looking at Sakura across the distance separating them, who had stayed put at Neji's order, surrounded by the others. She looked shaken but was all right, Naruto noted.

Sasuke raised a battered eye questioningly.

"I'm going to be a dad," Naruto chuckled incredulously, rubbing the back of his head. "But she does not know it yet!"

Sasuke smirked. "So you'll be the one announcing her. Unpredictable, as usual."

"All's clear," Sai announced, and Naruto rose to his feet, Sasuke following suit. They started to walk in the direction of the waiting group; in the direction of Sakura.

"You will take the position of Konoha Police now," Naruto stated rather than asked. He was done with asking. He looked at Sasuke's silent face. "What are you really afraid of?" He asked finally, and Sasuke looked sideways at him, his dark eyes troubled.

After a short silence, The Uchiha said quietly, "What if it's really in my blood…being evil, and what if I turn against Konoha again?"

Naruto huffed. "Then I'll be your safety net," he said firmly.

Sasuke started, the claim reminding him of when he had promised the same thing to Juugo. His lips rose in a small smile, and Naruto took it as a yes, finally.

Sakura had been watching the two, first and foremost relieved that Naruto looked all right. Seeing the serious way they were talking, she had curbed her instinct to rush to them, giving them a few minutes to sort out whatever they were discussing. She took her time and shakily walked towards them, meeting them halfway. As she neared them, she saw that both looked so _gleeful_, and realized that they had actually enjoyed fighting alongside each other. Her heart lifted at the thought. Maybe they were in the road of healing their bond, finally.

Sasuke stepped aside as they reached Sakura, giving the couple some privacy.

Sakura immediately scanned Naruto's frame for any major injuries, relieved when finding nothing serious; then whacked him hard in the chest.

"How could you be so reckless, baka," she berated him. "You're not supposed to follow the enemy blindly beyond the territory like that!" She was not aware of tears flowing down her cheeks.

Naruto wheezed at the punch, but a wide grin brightened his face. He was used to her punch followed by a hug by now; she did it after the Pein attack and after the battle with Madara. The punch conveyed her worry about him and the hug her love. That was her way.

The way of_ his_ Sakura-chan, his wife. The ultimate mixture of hardness and softness.

"I love you too!" he exclaimed, grinning cheekily and blue eyes dancing.

Sakura hiccupped between a sob and a laugh and launched herself in his waiting, strong warm arms.

"I love you," he whispered intensely in her ear, getting serious, brushing his lips against her temple.

Sakura drew a jagged breath. "I love you too," she choked, her face buried in his chest.

She loved him; with all her heart, soul and body. She was so totally _in_ love him that life had a new dimension and meaning, that the sun seemed brighter and the nights deliciously rapturous, that she was always filled with this transcending happiness.

She raised her head to look at him, her love for him brightening her beautiful teary green eyes. "I love you," she said again, her watery smile turning wider.

"I love you." She could not seem to stop saying it now that she had said it for the first time.

Naruto hugged her tighter. He felt a joy starting from deep within him and spreading out all through his being, brightening his face. He had always _known_; but it was still great to hear her saying it. Grinning happily, he brushed his lips against her forehead; it was the most he can allow himself to do what with the large audience they had right now.

He gently put a warm palm over her flat stomach. "You should be more careful now, Sakura-chan," he whispered.

She looked at him questioningly.

"We have conceived. I felt it when I was in Kyuubi mode. You're carrying our baby," he said in a hushed tone, the words declared so precious.

Sakura felt her breath catch, and her jaw hang down. "What..!"

She had not known…It was so very stupid of her, being that she was a medic and all; but she had not have the tiniest clue. She had sometimes been irregular in her periods and having been in the deliriously happy haze the past weeks, she had totally disregarded any delay as a warning sign. Making a quick mental calculation, she realized she must be six weeks pregnant already.

"We're having a baby!" she said in wondered tone, her eyes wide with joy, and Naruto nodded, sharing her wonder and happiness.

"You're having a baby?" Ino squealed loudly behind them, making the couple jump; she had been close by, tending to Sasuke's wounds, and could not prevent hearing Sakura.

"Who's having a baby?" Kiba asked from a distance, ears immediately perking up.

"They're having a baby!" Ino announced to the group with a loud whoop, even as Naruto and Sakura was trying to shush her up.

"Pig!" Sakura hissed, turning bright red as all eyes turned towards them.

Shikamaru groaned. "Can't you let the guys make the announcement themselves?" he chided his wife, but Ino waved her husband off, too excited to pay heed to his chiding.

"As the future Godmother I surely have the right to announce the news!"

Sakura sighed in exasperation at her friend's antics, but her ire was quickly forgotten as Hinata and Ten-Ten rushed to her side, all beaming happily, while an ecstatic Naruto was subjected to some typical back-slaps from the guys.

"Spring-time of youth!" Lee cheered loudly.

And the spring sun rose from the horizon, blasting the surrounding with the bright light of its first sunrays, hitting on Sakura's pink cheeks and wide, happy green eyes as she and Naruto was congratulated.

Finally, the group slowly made their way towards Konoha's gates, a slight breeze raising and blowing the first early spring's sakura blossoms across their way. A new beginning of another cycle.

**XXXXX**

**Epilogue.  
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A very distraught Naruto furiously paced the corridor of the hospital, to and fro; his fists clamped by his sides, a deep frown etched between the deep-worry laced blue eyes, his hair tousled from the numerous times he had raked his fingers through them. It was October the 8th, two days before his birthday, but that was the least of importance right now.

"What are you doing out here?" Kakashi's voice suddenly said, "Shouldn't you be in there?"

Two heads turned in the direction of the new arrival. The frantic Naruto got even more agitated and launched in a long, excited jumbled tirade which Kakashi could not make head or tail of.

"What he's trying to say is that he's been kicked out," Sasuke finally said quietly. He was still wondering what the hell he was doing at the hospital at this ungodly hour. But even _he_ could not have left the Hokage alone in his pitiful state.

He had come across the Hokage couple by pure chance – having finished his night shift at the Konoha police quarters and on had been on his way home. Naruto, carrying last-stages pregnant Sakura in his arms, had been rushing to the hospital. The obviously harried Hokage had been trying not to speed too much, in fear of jolting his precious load.

"Sasuke!" There had been a deep relief in the voice as Naruto had hailed the Uchiha. "Sakura-chan has started her labour!" He had had announced in a high-pitched tone which denoted his extreme tension and panic.

"Naruto, there's no need to panic!" had gently chided Sakura, and had immediately started on a low painful grunt, which had caused the poor blond to panic even more.

"And she tells me not to panic!" the blond had squeaked in alarm as his precious Sakura-chan had doubled over in pain.

"I'll go ahead and warn the hospital of your arrival," had proposed Sasuke, but Naruto told him that their ANBU guards had already gone ahead for that.

"Accompany us," Naruto had requested and seeing no reason or excuse of why to refuse, here Sasuke was, at the hospital, keeping the distraught blond company.

"Is she having complications?" Kakashi asked, and Naruto went into another long incomprehensive tirade.

"Nothing major," Sasuke had no choice but to play the interpreter again, "But he has hyperventilated twice," pointing to the pacing Naruto, "and Tsunade-sama had kicked him out; for the time being, at least."

"What is he doing out here?" another voice quietly asked and Sai noiselessly appeared. "Why isn't he inside with her?" He had asked the ANBU guard to inform him when Sakura went into labour, and so he had come immediately.

"He has been kicked out…for the time being," Kakashi quickly filled him in.

Sai gave a silent nod to Sasuke. Having been assigned to help Sasuke in the building up of the Konoha police force, the two had been working together the past months, and had reached a quiet, friendly truce. With Naruto being involved in the project a lot, the three, along with Sakura and Kakashi, had fallen back into a comfortable relation.

The three men fell into silence, while the soon-to-be dad resumed his pacing.

"She could be _dying_ in there," Naruto uttered in a horrified voice, stopping abruptly in his pacing and going very pale as a loud cry reached them. It was definitely Sakura's voice.

"Calm down, Naruto, Tsunade-sama is with her; she'll be fine," Kakashi tried to soothe him.

At the same time, the door was jerked open and a nurse appeared. "You can come in now, Hokage-sama, she is about to give birth."

"Sakura-chan!" He burst into the room and rushed to the delivering table, eyes frantic as he searched her pain-ridden face. "Are you all right? Are_"

"Get a grip of yourself, gaki, if you don't want to be kicked out again," Tsunade barked. "She's giving birth, not dying! Now, calm down and hold her hand!"

Naruto swallowed hard and immediately complied, while Sakura tried to give him a reassuring smile as yet another contraction rode through her.

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto held his son in his arms. The active, crying baby, wrapped in a blanket, was a spitting image of his father.

"The Namikaze gene run strong," Tsunade observed, her eyes moist as she looked at the miniature Naruto and Minato: spiky blond hair and cerulean blue eyes.

A tired Sakura smiled glowingly as she took in the sight. She watched Naruto's face as he gazed down at their son nestled in his arms, the pride and love that blazed in his eyes bringing a lump to her throat. He raised his head to look at her, the same love for her glowing in the blue eyes. He bent to bestow a warm kiss on her forehead.

"Our son, Sakura-chan," he whispered, awed.

She chuckled and nodded, feeling as awed as him as they both looked at the tiny being held between them. "Yes. A mini-Naruto!"

The past nine months of marriage had seen her and Naruto's love for each other grow even deeper than ever, if possible, and she knew that parenthood would bring another step in their bond; step she was so looking forward to.

"Can I take him to meet Kakashi sensei, Sai and Sasuke?" Naruto asked a short while later, after both mother and baby had been properly cleaned and dressed and Sakura had fussed over their son thoroughly.

"Are they here?" she exclaimed.

"Yes, they've been keeping me company."

"They can come in, I'm decent now," Sakura proposed.

"I'll call them in," Tsunade said.

Sakura smiled happily as the members of recomposed, former team 7 filled in the room and Naruto proudly showing off their son.

**XXXXX**

"Let's have another baby."

Okay, it was not how he had planned to say it; definitely not this rushed and abrupt. But the words were out and could not be retracted to be re-phrased now.

Uzumaki Naruto nervously shot a sideways glance at his best buddy, his long term pal, his timeless confidante, his wife and the mother of his son, awaiting her response in trepidation.

The two were sprawled on the lush green grassy ground under the shade of the wide oak tree where he had proposed to her some time back, the warm end-summer breeze ruffling over them, the sun still blazing hot in the spotless blue sky and ten days shy of one year old baby Uzumaki Yoshito sleeping blissfully on the spread blanket besides them.

Uzumaki Sakura turned to look at her husband with a glare of affront.

"What? Have you gone out of your mind? Yoshito-chan is not even one year old yet!"

"He'll be one year in ten days!" Naruto protested.

"It's too early!"

"Come on, Sakura-chan…don't you want to give him a little sister?"

The image of a baby girl made Sakura pause and waver for an instance, but then she recovered quickly and resumed her glare at her husband.

"No, not now, it's too soon yet!"

"Please, Sakura-chan…"

"No!"

"A cute, chubby, darling little daughter…"

"…" Sakura felt herself melting at the thought. A blue eyed, blond haired baby girl…

Naruto, seeing the struggle in those beautiful green eyes, immediately pounced on it. "We can start on it immediately if you want!"

Green eyes snapped wide. "_Naruto…"_

But warm, hungry mouth was already at work on her neck. His hunger for her had never decreased.

"What_..." She tried fighting off the heat that was blooming through her. Her fiery response and need for him had never decreased.

"_No!.._" She knew it was losing battle as hungry mouth took hers in a kiss, her blood pounding hotly in her veins as warm hands moulded her hips to bring her flush to him, his wonderful taste and delicious scent seeping out into her senses and soul. She had never yet been able to resist him.

"_We can be seen!"_ She managed to gasp as he released her mouth momentarily.

"Let's go home then!"

"But… Yoshito_!"

Only a wisp of air remained under the oak tree as their son in one arm and his wife tightly held to his side by the other, Naruto blurred away in a flash step.

An instance later, Tsunade, who was having an afternoon snooze in an armchair in the cool shade of her terrace, was jolted upright as a now wide awake, gurgling Yoshito was deposited in her arms.

"Baa-baa!" Clapped little Yoshito gleefully.

"We'll come to get him in one hour…no, make that two hours," Naruto hurriedly told the befuddled woman and before to could open her mouth to place a word, disappeared in a blur, a reddening Sakura still tightly held to him.

So, once again Sakura find herself following her idiot of a friend and husband in a reckless, mind-lowing, rapturous endeavour, once again exhaltingly putting the what ifs aside and letting it on him to deal with the consequences when they come.

The end.

XXXXX

**AN:** Seeing how Minato - who was a calm person - was pannicked when Kushina was giving birth and which resulted him being scolded by the Third Hokage's wife, I figure that Naruto would be ten times worse and Tsunade being Tsunade even more scolding! Hence my version of a pannicked Naruto while Sakura is giving birth XD.


End file.
